‘Smart Foreign Secretary’ To ‘RSS-BJP Mouthpiece’: P Chidambaram Hits Out At S Jaishankar Amid Katchatheevu Row

Upping his attack on External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar over Katchatheevu island issue, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday called the former a "suave liberal foreign service officer" who went on to become a "smart foreign secretary" to a "mouthpiece of the RSS-BJP".

"Life and times of Mr Jaishankar will be recorded in the annals of acrobatic sports," Chidambaram said in a post on micro-blogging site-X.

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Former Finance Minister Chidambaram targeted Jaishankar over the latter's remarks on the ongoing Katchatheevu island row.

Chidambaram said that people can "change colours" quickly in a dig at Jaishankar. "Tit for tat is old. Tweet for tweet is the new weapon," he said.

The Katchatheevu island row erupted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments on Sunday, in which he attacked the Congress over its decision to hand over the strategic island to Sri Lanka in 1974, when Centre government was lead by former PM Indira Gandhi.

Chidambaram's remarks came hours after Jaishankar criticised the DMK and Congress, saying the two parties approached the island issue "as though they have no responsibility for it".

"Will foreign minister Mr Jaishankar please refer to the RTI reply dated 27-1-2015. I believe that Mr Jaishankar was the FM on 27-1-2015. The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka. Why is the Foreign Minister and his ministry doing a somersault now? How quickly can people change colours," the Congress leader tweeted.

Earlier, in a presser Jaishankar said in the last 20 years, as many as 6,184 Indian fishermen have been detained by Sri Lanka and 1,175 Indian fishing vessels have been seized, detained or apprehended.

"This is the background of the issue that we are discussing,” he said.

"In the last five years, the Katchatheevu issue and the fisherman's issue have been repeatedly raised by various parties in Parliament. It has come up in Parliament questions, debates and in the consultative committee. The then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has written to me numerous times. And my record shows that to the current Chief Minister, I have replied 21 times on this issue. This is not an issue which has suddenly surfaced. This is a live issue," Jaishankar said.