According to Thalavai Sundaram, the AIADMK is still the only party that has taken legal action to reclaim Katchatheevu

Former AIADMK minister and Kanniyakumari MLA N Thalavai Sundaram said on Wednesday that the AIADMK has been the only political party to take legal action to reclaim the island from Sri Lanka, despite the Katchatheevu issue continuing to be a major subject of conversation.

Speaking to reporters in Nagercoil, Sundaram said that the AIADMK party, under the leadership of its general secretary at the time, J Jayalalithaa, had petitioned the Supreme Court in 2008 to reclaim the island of Katchatheevu, which the Congress had given to Sri Lanka in the 1970s.

Thalavai N. Sundaram, AIADMK MLA
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“In 2011, after Jayalalithaa’s Supreme Court petition, the union government headed by Congress submitted a counter-affidavit to the highest court, asserting that the island was no longer within the country’s sovereign jurisdiction. “The UPA government had the DMK as an alliance partner during that time,” he said.

As the case was pending at the highest court, Jayalalithaa and Edappadi K Palaniswami, the present party general secretary, wrote to the then-union government to expedite the case’s processes, Sundaram, who at the time was the AIADMK’s legal wing secretary, said. Nevertheless, he said that neither the Congress nor the succeeding BJP administration made any attempts in this area.

He went on to say that the AIADMK is still the only political party that has taken legal action to reclaim the island of Katchatheevu. Prior to the press conference, a video clip of Jayalalithaa’s Assembly address discussing the party’s plans to retake the island was also played.