Addressing a press conference in the national capital, EAM S Jaishankar said, “Today, it is important for the public to know and the people to judge, this issue has been hidden too long from the gaze of the public.””… We are talking about 1958 and 1960… The main people in the case wanted to make sure that at least we should get the fishing rights… The island was given away in 1974 and the fishing rights were given away in 1976… One, the most basic recurring (aspect) is the indifference shown by the then central government and the PMs about the territory of India…”That fact is they simply did not care…,” Jaishankar said in his press conference.”In an observation given by the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1961, he wrote, ‘I attach no importance at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it. I do not like matters like this pending indefinitely and being raised again and again in parliament.’ So, to Pandit Nehru, this was a little island, it had no importance, he saw it as a nuisance… For him, the sooner you give it away, the better… This view continued on to Indira Gandhi as well…” the EAM added.The External affairs minister put the Congress in the dock for completely ignoring Indian concerns on the island.
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