MK Stalin suggests resignation of Tamil Nadu MPs for Cauvery

Chennai: The DMK on Saturday said all the MPs from Tamil Nadu should resign if Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to meet an all-party delegation from the state seeking his intervention for setting up the Cauvery Water Management Board as ordered by the Supreme Court.

The ‘resignation’ idea was mooted by DMK working president M. K. Stalin, who is also the leader of Opposition, when he met Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami at the secretariat here. DMK senior Duraimurugan had accompanied Stalin to the meeting called by the CM in his chamber with all his cabinet colleagues attending. The CM had agreed for the meeting suggested by Stalin and other opposition leaders to discuss the Cauvery issue in view of the intransigent stand taken by Karnataka government on the issue of Cauvery release.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with the CM, Stalin said Palaniswami had told him that PM Modi declined to meet the TN delegation. This claim was later denied by senior minister D. Jayakumar, who told the media that “neither the Prime Minister’s office nor Modi have declined to meet the Tamil Nadu delegation”.

The CM had told Stalin that the Centre had informed the State that the TN delegation could first meet the concerned Central Minister (Nitin Gadkari) and thereafter the PM if need be, Jayakumar clarified.

Stalin told the media that during his meeting with the CM, he had suggested that the Assembly be convened for passing a resolution bringing pressure upon the Centre to set up the Cauvery board as per the Supreme Court directive (to set it up in six weeks). 

He had also mooted the idea that all the TN MPs should resign if the PM failed to meet the TN delegation or immediately intervene in the Cauvery issue. “They (government) said that this issue could be discussed when the Assembly convenes,” Stalin said. 

An all-party meeting convened by the state government here on February 22 to discuss the Cauvery issue had decided that the Chief Minister would lead a delegation of leaders of all parties, farmers and MPs from the state to meet the PM in Delhi. 

Stalin also said the CM told him they could wait till March 5 and if there was no communication from the PMO, he assured that the House will be convened on March 8. “Prime Minister declining to meet the delegation is an insult to Tamil Nadu,” he charged. 

Jayakumar said a proposal for convening the Assembly and adopting a resolution to put pressure the Centre on the Cauvery issue was discussed at the meeting. “The Chief Minister said the matter will be considered and steps will be taken for convening the Assembly,” he added. On the proposed meeting with the PM, he said the government was taking “continuous action” on the issue and expected a communiqué from PMO on March 5. “We are confident about it, if there is no information (from PMO), the Assembly will be convened and follow up action taken,” he said. 

Stalin was invited for the consultation with the CM to discuss the Cauvery issue even Karnataka has called for an all-party meeting on March 7. The Supreme Court had on February 16 raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced TN’s share while compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin. It was passing orders on appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal’s final order of 2007 apportioning quantum of water from the river among its riparian states.