BENGALURU: Senior BJP leader and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday called the Congress government in Karnataka an agent of Tamil Nadu. Speaking in a similar tone, another former CM, Basavaraj Bommai, urged former AICC president Sonia Gandhi to intervene and find a solution to the Cauvery dispute between Karnataka and TN.
The two leaders were addressing protest rallies organised by the BJP state unit and courted arrest at Mysuru Bank Circle in Bengaluru on Saturday. “Congress government leaders are working as agents of TN. They released water even before the Supreme Court’s directive. Not one drop of water should be released,” Yediyurappa said. He further went on to say that CM Siddaramaiah and DyCM DK Shivakumar released water to satisfy TN.
“The Congress government in the state is incompetent and has no right to remain in power. They should resign and go home,” Yediyurappa added. He said that the Supreme Court should send an expert team to the Cauvery basin in Karnataka to assess the situation and until then the state should not release water to TN. He warned that Saturday’s protest was just a symbolic one and it will be carried out across the state involving all senior leaders of the party, including MLAs and MPs.
Meanwhile, Bommai demanded that Sonia intervene to solve the dispute. “She is the head of the I.N.D.I.A bloc… she can call TN CM MK Stalin and convince him,” he said. The officials and lawyers from Karnataka did not argue the state’s case effectively before the Cauvery Water Management Authority and did not file an interim application before the Supreme Court, he charged.
They also failed to draw attention of the authorities to the fact that TN illegally utilised 67 tmcft of water as against the permitted 32 tmcft to irrigate over 4 lakh hectares instead of 1.8 lakh hectares, he claimed.
“Bengaluru is an international city… people from all across the globe come to the city. It would be a big shame if the government fails to give water to the city. Shivakumar talks of ‘Brand Bengaluru’… but fails to give water to the state capital. On one hand, the CM says water will not be released to TN… but then his deputy says water is released…. it shows lack of coordination in the government,” he said.
