Cauvery water dispute: Some water lost to win a big battle

Bengaluru: Losing a battle to win a war-That seems to be the strategy of Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, who is  facing the heat from Mandya farmers over release of  water to Tamil Nadu.

The CM, who interacted with editors on Wednesday in a session almost exclusively devoted to the Cauvery row, wasted no time in reaching out to farmers through AIR. He took pains to put forth the view to editors that water had been released to TN to create a positive impression about Karnataka in the Supreme Court.

"We have to release water. It is inevitable. If we comply with the SC order, we will be in comfortable position while arguing on the state’s main petition challenging the Cauvery Tribunal’s final order, which is coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court on October 18. That’s why releasing water makes sense," he said.

Taking a dig at the opposition BJP, which had opposed the release of water, Mr Siddaramaiah reeled out data to back his argument that he had not done anything which his predecessors had not done. "In 2012, when Jagadish Shettar was CM, our counsel, Fali Nariman suggested releasing 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu as a goodwill gesture. The then BJP government backed Mr Nariman’s decision. In 1995 when H.D. Deve  Gowda was CM, Karnataka had to oblige the Supreme Court and release 6 tmcft water. And when S.M. Krishna was CM, the court ordered staggered water release of 10 tmcft."

Defending Mr Nariman and his legal team, the CM said, “He (Nariman) is a senior advocate. Last week when I went to Delhi, I met him at his residence. In  fact it was Mr Nariman, who during the hearing on the petition filed by Tamil Nadu, made a goodwill gesture to give water to Tamil Nadu. He might have made that offer seeing the circumstances in the court hall. The court immediately accepted his suggestion. He has been representing the state for a very long time. In the past, he made a similar gesture in 2012 which was accepted by the previous BJP government. Mr Nariman did no wrong. We stand by his view.”

Getting hotter
While addressing the media, Mr Siddaramaiah received a phone call from farmer leader and Melkote MLA , K.S. Puttannaiah. The latter apparently requested the CM to release water to farmers to save the standing crop. Mr Siddaramaiah politely said he would look into the issue. When Mr Puttannaiah persisted with his demand, the CM replied, “I am in a meeting. I will call you sometime during the day.”