Tamil Nadu erupts in anger at Centre's Cauvery petition

Chennai: Even as the Centre’s petition in Supreme Court seeking for more time on Cauvery drew fierce condemnation from all the farmers’ outfits and most political parties in Tamil Nadu, the state law minister C.V.Shanmugam expressed concern that the Union Government was hurting the federal structure of the Constitution in pushing a partisan agenda for purely political gain (in Karnataka).

“This Centre’s petition clearly goes against the principles of federalism enshrined in the Constitution. It must be rejected by the Supreme Court. Our counsel had stoutly opposed the petition”, he told reporters in the SC complex at Delhi. He said the Centre should at least ensure that Karnataka released four tmc ft of Cauvery water as per the Supreme Court directive.

Slamming the Centre for ‘betraying’ the TN interests “for the sake of Karnataka poll”, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said, “Central Government is an institution; it’s not the BJP party.”

To a question whether Centre’s delay till the Karnataka elections meant that it now had a Cauvery Scheme that would significantly help TN and did not want that to announce it now for fear of hurting its poll score in Karnataka, TKS quipped, “What will we do if the BJP wins in Karnataka and the Centre then decides they cannot do injustice to the Kannadigas as they have voted for BJP?”
State BJP president Tamilisai Sounderarajan tried to play the ball right back into the DMK court by demanding that Stalin should ask his Congress friends to get their Chief Minister in Karnataka to release the 4 tmc ordered to be immediately released by the SC.

According to farmers’ leader P.R.Pandiyan, the Cauvery battle is no more a fight between the riparian states but has turned into a national issue, a conflict between higher judiciary and the executive. “The implementation of a Supreme Court verdict cannot be delayed for any political or administrative reasons”, he said.