After hectic Cauvery effort, Siddaramaiah rests

Bengaluru: The month-long Cauvery river dispute that had paralysed the state, seems to have taken a toll on Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah.

This was evident, when the CM took a day off on Tuesday  cancelling all his  appointments. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior bureaucrat disclosed that Mr Siddaramaiah  was monitoring the Cauvery dispute by remaining constantly  in touch with Water Resource minister, M.B. Patil, who was in Delhi. "Mr Patil was updating Mr Siddaramaiah with minute details. Mr Siddaramaiah's biggest worry was lead counsel for Karnataka, Fali S. Nariman taking umbrage to remarks passed by party leaders in the special legislature session on Monday. Even Congress leader V.S. Ugrappa and BJP leaders had lambasted Mr Nariman for deciding to recuse himself when the case came up for hearing on Sept. 30. As a result, Mr Siddaramaiah had sent Mr Patil on Monday evening to initiate a dialogue," the source explained.

The source added that Mr Patil did everything possible to convince, Mr Nariman. "Once, Mr Nariman agreed that he would appear in court, Mr Siddaramaiah's immediate reaction was: ‘Call off all my appointments today’. It was evident, that the CM needed rest as the mental and physical fatigue had taken a toll on him. Despite this, he  kept tabs on the case until the order was pronounced in the court hall. Mr Siddaramaiah had been on antibiotics for the last 10 days due to viral fever," the source explained.

Meanwhile, farmers in Mandya, furious over the decision to release water to TN,   decided to block the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway on Dasara procession day.  As much as 2,843 cusecs water is being released into canals for farmers in the Cauvery catchment area and 3,404 cusecs into the river leading to TN.

Miffed nariman gives in, appears in Supreme Court
It took the efforts of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Water Resources Minister, M.B. Patil and  Law and Parliamentary Affairs  Minister, T.B. Jayachandra to persuade miffed senior counsel, Fali S Nariman, to continue to represent the state in the Cauvery dispute before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Deeply hurt by the opposition, the public and a section of the media holding him responsible for the repeated  orders of the Supreme Court directing Karnataka to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu despite the poor storage in its reservoirs, Mr. Nariman and his team refused to appear before the court on Tuesday.

But the CM intervened to do some damage control. He not only tried to personally persuade him to continue to represent Karnataka, but also sent Mr Patil, Mr  Jayachandra and Advocate General, M.R.Naik to his home in New Delhi to convince him.

Former Prime Minister, H.D.Deve Gowda, too played a role, shooting off a letter  to Mr Nariman  Monday night, requesting him to appear before the court on behalf of Karnataka ignoring the criticism.

The persuasion worked and Mr Nariman finally changed his mind, according to sources in the state’s legal team. He went on to vehemently argue Karnataka’s case before the Supreme Court, informing it about the distress of farmers in the state.