Following Karnataka’s decision not to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Kalaignar reacted with sobriety of a statesman, telling reporters that he did not want to react to media reports as he did not want to give room for unnecessary differences of opinion between two states. There was no need to send any letter to the Prime Minister as he had already been apprised of the situation. A case was pending in the Supreme Court and “We will approach it legally” the CM said on October 28.
On the previous day (Oct.27) the Karnataka government had turned down the request of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for release of Cauvery water to Mettur Dam conveyed through a letter, carried by his emissaries, PWD Principal Secretary Thiru S.Ramasundaram and the State government’s Special Representative in New Delhi Thiru Cumbum P.Selvendran and impress upon the Karnataka CM the need for the immediate release of the State’s share.
Till then, Tamil Nadu had realized around 82 tmc ft since June as against its share of about 163 tmc ft as per the interim award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. On Oct.27, the storage at Mettur Dam was around 26 tmc ft, hardly sufficient for three weeks, considering the then rate of inflow and discharge. But all four reservoirs in Karnataka are in an extremely comfortable condition. The combined storage of the reservoirs in that State was around 100 tmc ft as against the total capacity of 114 tmc ft. K.R.Sagar had attained its full level of 124.80 ft and it was getting an inflow of 11,500 cusecs as it was raining heavily in the catchment area at Kodagu. The Karnataka Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai audaciously stated that “there were bright chances of water overflowing in natural course. But we will not release voluntarily.” Accordingly, the discharge from K.R.Sagar went up on Oct.28, and nearly 6,800 cusecs was released with discharge from Kabini reservoir also, the water flow in Cauvery as recorded by the Water Commission Gauge Centre at Billigundulu in Karnataka was at 40,000 cusecs on Oct.29 following which flood alert was issued at Hogenakkal. With the arrival of Northeast monsoon the position in Cauvery delta region was likely to improve in natural course.
But even for acting upon Tamil Nadu’s request when it was in a very comfortable position, the upper riparian state of Karnataka witnessed a total unity of all political parties in refusing Tamil Nadu’s just demand. Whereas, placed in a distress situation, the lower riparian state of Tamil Nadu witnessed politicization of the lifeline issue of getting its due share of Cauvery water to save its crops.
The decision of the Karnataka government was reached at an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister B.S.Yeddyurappa on Oct.27, immediately after receiving Kalaignar’s letter from his envoy the previous day. It was the first meeting of the kind after the political crisis broke out in Karnataka, when leaders of the ruling BJP and opposition Congress and JD(S) parties were engaged in hectic political activities, mudslinging each other of conspiracy, horse-trading, barter of legislators etc., But the leaders of all parties kept aside their political acrimony and met in a cordial atmosphere and took a united stand against Tamil Nadu. The Leader of Opposition belonging to the Congress party Siddaramiah said there was “no question of politics in matters concerning water and land.” Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Minister H.D.Revanna echoed a similar feeling and said the interests of Karnataka farmers was foremost.
The non-partisan and restrained popular Tamil daily, ‘Daily Thanthi’ published an editorial resenting the lack of unity and cohesion among political parties in Tamil Nadu even on matters of vital interests of the people of the state. Regretting that Tamil Nadu, which shows the way for other states in most respects, lagged behind in this respect, it wished that the political parties in the state to learn a lesson from their Kerala counterparts.
In a similar vein, noted film director and Tamil activist Thangar Bachan had called upon political parties in the state to bury their differences and fight for the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. “The politicians in the state have not united so far, for the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, the fishermen problem or the Sethusamudram project. Let us unite at least for the Cauvery water issue” he explained, noting how political parties in Karnataka had united for refusing Tamil Nadu’s plea for water.
The sentiments expressed by the Daily and the Director are appreciable, but the point to be pondered over is who cause this disunity. Take for instance, even the present crisis of Karnataka refusing to release the due share of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
As usual, Jayalalitha, desperately craving for some issue or the other, existent or non-existent, for her daily statements taking upon the DMK government and Kalaignar, led the chorus decrying the ‘sloppy attitude’ of the Chief Minister in getting the due share of water from Karnataka. Blaming Kalaignar of failing to take timely steps, she issued a statement on Oct.28 asking the Chief Minister to use his influence at the Centre for the release of Cauvery water from Karnataka. She had claimed that during her tenure as CM, she got the meetings of the Cauvery River Authority led by the Prime Minister, convened several times and took the matter to the Supreme Court. “The CM should have written or spoken to the Karnataka CM. If there was no response, he should have appealed to the Prime Minister or got the CRA meeting convened, failing which he could have approached the courts” she had said. The very next day on Oct.29, she issued another very provocative statement personally accusing Kalaignar and demanded his resignation. Kalaignar has since issued a detailed statement rebutting each and every charge of her giving details of the steps taken by the DMK governments on the issue date-wise and the slipshod attitude of her during ADMK regime. Kalaignar was constrained to join issues with her lest the people would have been misled to believe her irresponsible and unfounded charges because of the wide publicity given to her statements in the biased media.
Even Jayalalitha’s criticism of the Cauvery River Authority in August 1998, days after it was announced, as ‘powerless’, ‘unnecessary mechanism’, ‘a toothless wonder’ and so on, was not her original; but her statement then was plagiarized verbatim from a critical article by Congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer in ‘The Indian Express’ daily the previous day. It was borne out of sheer political malice because Kalaignar was the Chief Minister, although her party was constituent of the then NDA government at the Centre. The contention of Jayalalitha that she was then insisting on modifications in the role of the CRA to give it more teeth and that she withdrew her party’s support to the NDA government in 1999, on this score, is a blatant lie and total distortion of history. She never made this point for pulling out of the coalition and the then Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee went on record stating that Jayalalitha’s one point agenda during those sordid 13 months of alliance with her party, was ‘demand for the dismissal of the DMK government’, which he never obliged. Certainly the credibility of Vajpayee is far superior than Jayalalitha’s.
Not only in this issue but in every other issue and on the popular schemes introduced by Kalaignar. Jayalalitha adopts the same negative approach and oppose the DMK rule for the sake of opposition. But when countered with evidence and statistical details she ducks down. For instance she decried one rupee a kg. rice scheme, hailed all over the country by political leaders, economists et al., stating that the ‘poor quality’ rice was only fit for cattle feed and is being smuggled to Kerala. She invented a strange biological phenomenon – that the consumption of eggs laid by chicken consuming ration rice caused chikungunya epidemic! She said the free colour television sets were of poor quality and burst when lightning struck in the skies! She cried foul over the internationally acclaimed Kalaignar Health Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatment of diseases. Recently she claimed that under Kalaignar Housing Scheme, houses were allotted only to DMK families and contracts for construction were given to DMK men. When Deputy Chief Minister Thiru M.K.Stalin challenged her to prove the charges offering to quit the post, no response came from her.
The Sethusamudram project was the century-old dream of Tamils and the ADMK had been reiterating the demand in all its election manifestos till 2006 Parliament elections and 2006 Assembly elections. But when the DMK succeeded in persuading the UPA government, obtained the sanction and inaugurated dredging works for the Rs.1,500-crore canal project. Jayalalitha suddenly made a somersault and joined the bandwagon of the Sangh Parivar and opposed the project on superstitious grounds. Parties like the MDMK, CPI and CPM which criticized Jayalalitha’s opposition have now aligned with her. The works in the project remain suspended because of litigation in the Supreme Court. Now Tamil lovers like Thangar Bachan should ponder over as to who created the dent in the political unity of the state on such an issue of historic importance for Tamil Nadu and Tamils? Jayalalitha’s only motive was the credit for ushering in this dream project should not go to Kalaignar.
So also in the Sri Lankan Tamils issue during the peak of civil war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE in 2009. Barring a few fringe outfits which took extreme positions, Kalaignar was able to cobble unity of all political parties in the state including the MDMK and P.Nedumaran’s group for every step taken by the Tamil Nadu government for protecting the lives and properties of lakhs of innocent Lankan Tamils caught in the conflict. But suddenly Jayalalitha, who used to take pride in liquidating the traces of the LTTE and pro-Eelam groups in the state during her regimes and who till January 17, 2009 openly supported the Sri Lankan armed forces saying loss of civilian life was a collateral effect unavoidable in war, Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and India could not interfere in its internal affairs and decried the LTTE ‘for using innocent people as human shields’, shifted her position and exclaimed that she would secure Tamil Eelam by sending Indian armed forces to the island nation. The political unity assiduously built up till the Human Chain action programme in January last year was disrupted by Jayalalitha for the narrow political and electoral gain in the Lok Sabha elections in May last year. But the conscious people of Tamil Nadu gave to drubbing to Jayalalitha and her allies for their crude opportunism. Once again the fair-minded like Thangar Bachan should identify and isolate the disruptor of political unity in the state.
Tamil Nadu in fact was a model state for political culture until 1972 when the ADMK was founded with the one-point programme and objective of blind opposition to Kalaignar. With Jayalalitha taking the reigns of that party, she took Kalaignar-baiting and anathema to the farthest. With no personal appeal for herself, she schemed to polarize Tamil Nadu politics around Kalaignar and sought to consolidate sections opposed to him, not on issues but personally, behind her. All her theatrics are towards this end.
The result of Jayalalitha’s manouvres is that Tamil Nadu could not demonstrate political unity even on vital issues of concern for the state and people like Cauvery water issue or Mullaiperiyar dam issue whereas irrespective of any party in power, all political parties – national and regional – rally round the governments in Karnataka and Kerala. In the face of such unity there and disunity here, even the judiciary appears to be dillydallying and procrastinating even when Tamil Nadu has a just cause.
By all accounts it ends with the saying, ‘United we win, divided we fail’. But the prudent will identify and eliminate the disruptor of unity. Experience had made the people of Tamil Nadu wiser!
On the previous day (Oct.27) the Karnataka government had turned down the request of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for release of Cauvery water to Mettur Dam conveyed through a letter, carried by his emissaries, PWD Principal Secretary Thiru S.Ramasundaram and the State government’s Special Representative in New Delhi Thiru Cumbum P.Selvendran and impress upon the Karnataka CM the need for the immediate release of the State’s share.
Till then, Tamil Nadu had realized around 82 tmc ft since June as against its share of about 163 tmc ft as per the interim award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. On Oct.27, the storage at Mettur Dam was around 26 tmc ft, hardly sufficient for three weeks, considering the then rate of inflow and discharge. But all four reservoirs in Karnataka are in an extremely comfortable condition. The combined storage of the reservoirs in that State was around 100 tmc ft as against the total capacity of 114 tmc ft. K.R.Sagar had attained its full level of 124.80 ft and it was getting an inflow of 11,500 cusecs as it was raining heavily in the catchment area at Kodagu. The Karnataka Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai audaciously stated that “there were bright chances of water overflowing in natural course. But we will not release voluntarily.” Accordingly, the discharge from K.R.Sagar went up on Oct.28, and nearly 6,800 cusecs was released with discharge from Kabini reservoir also, the water flow in Cauvery as recorded by the Water Commission Gauge Centre at Billigundulu in Karnataka was at 40,000 cusecs on Oct.29 following which flood alert was issued at Hogenakkal. With the arrival of Northeast monsoon the position in Cauvery delta region was likely to improve in natural course.
But even for acting upon Tamil Nadu’s request when it was in a very comfortable position, the upper riparian state of Karnataka witnessed a total unity of all political parties in refusing Tamil Nadu’s just demand. Whereas, placed in a distress situation, the lower riparian state of Tamil Nadu witnessed politicization of the lifeline issue of getting its due share of Cauvery water to save its crops.
The decision of the Karnataka government was reached at an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister B.S.Yeddyurappa on Oct.27, immediately after receiving Kalaignar’s letter from his envoy the previous day. It was the first meeting of the kind after the political crisis broke out in Karnataka, when leaders of the ruling BJP and opposition Congress and JD(S) parties were engaged in hectic political activities, mudslinging each other of conspiracy, horse-trading, barter of legislators etc., But the leaders of all parties kept aside their political acrimony and met in a cordial atmosphere and took a united stand against Tamil Nadu. The Leader of Opposition belonging to the Congress party Siddaramiah said there was “no question of politics in matters concerning water and land.” Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Minister H.D.Revanna echoed a similar feeling and said the interests of Karnataka farmers was foremost.
The non-partisan and restrained popular Tamil daily, ‘Daily Thanthi’ published an editorial resenting the lack of unity and cohesion among political parties in Tamil Nadu even on matters of vital interests of the people of the state. Regretting that Tamil Nadu, which shows the way for other states in most respects, lagged behind in this respect, it wished that the political parties in the state to learn a lesson from their Kerala counterparts.
In a similar vein, noted film director and Tamil activist Thangar Bachan had called upon political parties in the state to bury their differences and fight for the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. “The politicians in the state have not united so far, for the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, the fishermen problem or the Sethusamudram project. Let us unite at least for the Cauvery water issue” he explained, noting how political parties in Karnataka had united for refusing Tamil Nadu’s plea for water.
The sentiments expressed by the Daily and the Director are appreciable, but the point to be pondered over is who cause this disunity. Take for instance, even the present crisis of Karnataka refusing to release the due share of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
As usual, Jayalalitha, desperately craving for some issue or the other, existent or non-existent, for her daily statements taking upon the DMK government and Kalaignar, led the chorus decrying the ‘sloppy attitude’ of the Chief Minister in getting the due share of water from Karnataka. Blaming Kalaignar of failing to take timely steps, she issued a statement on Oct.28 asking the Chief Minister to use his influence at the Centre for the release of Cauvery water from Karnataka. She had claimed that during her tenure as CM, she got the meetings of the Cauvery River Authority led by the Prime Minister, convened several times and took the matter to the Supreme Court. “The CM should have written or spoken to the Karnataka CM. If there was no response, he should have appealed to the Prime Minister or got the CRA meeting convened, failing which he could have approached the courts” she had said. The very next day on Oct.29, she issued another very provocative statement personally accusing Kalaignar and demanded his resignation. Kalaignar has since issued a detailed statement rebutting each and every charge of her giving details of the steps taken by the DMK governments on the issue date-wise and the slipshod attitude of her during ADMK regime. Kalaignar was constrained to join issues with her lest the people would have been misled to believe her irresponsible and unfounded charges because of the wide publicity given to her statements in the biased media.
Even Jayalalitha’s criticism of the Cauvery River Authority in August 1998, days after it was announced, as ‘powerless’, ‘unnecessary mechanism’, ‘a toothless wonder’ and so on, was not her original; but her statement then was plagiarized verbatim from a critical article by Congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer in ‘The Indian Express’ daily the previous day. It was borne out of sheer political malice because Kalaignar was the Chief Minister, although her party was constituent of the then NDA government at the Centre. The contention of Jayalalitha that she was then insisting on modifications in the role of the CRA to give it more teeth and that she withdrew her party’s support to the NDA government in 1999, on this score, is a blatant lie and total distortion of history. She never made this point for pulling out of the coalition and the then Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee went on record stating that Jayalalitha’s one point agenda during those sordid 13 months of alliance with her party, was ‘demand for the dismissal of the DMK government’, which he never obliged. Certainly the credibility of Vajpayee is far superior than Jayalalitha’s.
Not only in this issue but in every other issue and on the popular schemes introduced by Kalaignar. Jayalalitha adopts the same negative approach and oppose the DMK rule for the sake of opposition. But when countered with evidence and statistical details she ducks down. For instance she decried one rupee a kg. rice scheme, hailed all over the country by political leaders, economists et al., stating that the ‘poor quality’ rice was only fit for cattle feed and is being smuggled to Kerala. She invented a strange biological phenomenon – that the consumption of eggs laid by chicken consuming ration rice caused chikungunya epidemic! She said the free colour television sets were of poor quality and burst when lightning struck in the skies! She cried foul over the internationally acclaimed Kalaignar Health Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatment of diseases. Recently she claimed that under Kalaignar Housing Scheme, houses were allotted only to DMK families and contracts for construction were given to DMK men. When Deputy Chief Minister Thiru M.K.Stalin challenged her to prove the charges offering to quit the post, no response came from her.
The Sethusamudram project was the century-old dream of Tamils and the ADMK had been reiterating the demand in all its election manifestos till 2006 Parliament elections and 2006 Assembly elections. But when the DMK succeeded in persuading the UPA government, obtained the sanction and inaugurated dredging works for the Rs.1,500-crore canal project. Jayalalitha suddenly made a somersault and joined the bandwagon of the Sangh Parivar and opposed the project on superstitious grounds. Parties like the MDMK, CPI and CPM which criticized Jayalalitha’s opposition have now aligned with her. The works in the project remain suspended because of litigation in the Supreme Court. Now Tamil lovers like Thangar Bachan should ponder over as to who created the dent in the political unity of the state on such an issue of historic importance for Tamil Nadu and Tamils? Jayalalitha’s only motive was the credit for ushering in this dream project should not go to Kalaignar.
So also in the Sri Lankan Tamils issue during the peak of civil war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE in 2009. Barring a few fringe outfits which took extreme positions, Kalaignar was able to cobble unity of all political parties in the state including the MDMK and P.Nedumaran’s group for every step taken by the Tamil Nadu government for protecting the lives and properties of lakhs of innocent Lankan Tamils caught in the conflict. But suddenly Jayalalitha, who used to take pride in liquidating the traces of the LTTE and pro-Eelam groups in the state during her regimes and who till January 17, 2009 openly supported the Sri Lankan armed forces saying loss of civilian life was a collateral effect unavoidable in war, Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and India could not interfere in its internal affairs and decried the LTTE ‘for using innocent people as human shields’, shifted her position and exclaimed that she would secure Tamil Eelam by sending Indian armed forces to the island nation. The political unity assiduously built up till the Human Chain action programme in January last year was disrupted by Jayalalitha for the narrow political and electoral gain in the Lok Sabha elections in May last year. But the conscious people of Tamil Nadu gave to drubbing to Jayalalitha and her allies for their crude opportunism. Once again the fair-minded like Thangar Bachan should identify and isolate the disruptor of political unity in the state.
Tamil Nadu in fact was a model state for political culture until 1972 when the ADMK was founded with the one-point programme and objective of blind opposition to Kalaignar. With Jayalalitha taking the reigns of that party, she took Kalaignar-baiting and anathema to the farthest. With no personal appeal for herself, she schemed to polarize Tamil Nadu politics around Kalaignar and sought to consolidate sections opposed to him, not on issues but personally, behind her. All her theatrics are towards this end.
The result of Jayalalitha’s manouvres is that Tamil Nadu could not demonstrate political unity even on vital issues of concern for the state and people like Cauvery water issue or Mullaiperiyar dam issue whereas irrespective of any party in power, all political parties – national and regional – rally round the governments in Karnataka and Kerala. In the face of such unity there and disunity here, even the judiciary appears to be dillydallying and procrastinating even when Tamil Nadu has a just cause.
By all accounts it ends with the saying, ‘United we win, divided we fail’. But the prudent will identify and eliminate the disruptor of unity. Experience had made the people of Tamil Nadu wiser!
(07-11-10)
No comments:
Post a Comment