Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has appealed to organisers of Mandya bandh to drop the call, arguing that it will not help the Cauvery cause, even as he slammed the Opposition for “politicising” the issue. He also indicated that some quantum of water had to be released before approaching the court again for relief.
“A bandh will not help. There could be law and order problem. We will fight for farmers. We have safeguarded their interests as much as possible and will continue to do that,” he told presspersons here on Friday.
“Bandh will affect businesses. Any violence [during the bandh] will bring disrepute to the State; instead, you can continue with the protest,” he said.
Mr. Shivakumar also said that many who were now participating in Cauvery protests and extending support to the bandh, had stayed away from the Congress-organised “Walk for water” on the Mekedatu project.
JD(S) to support bandh
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy announced in Delhi that the Janata Dal (S) will support the Mandya bandh, and that he would drive straight to Mandya soon after landing in Bengaluru on Saturday. “It is my duty to stand with the people,” he said.
Mr. Shivakumar argued that both Opposition BJP and JD (S) were politicising the issue.
“Several times in the past water had been released. We have record of how much water was released during the tenures of H.D. Deve Gowda, S. Bangarappa, S.M. Krishna, and Basavaraj Bommai. We are continuing with the same set of lawyers [to fight Cauvery case] who were appointed then. I can rebut each Opposition allegation,” he added.
Responding to the Opposition criticism that the government delayed seeking legal recourse, he said: “There is no question of delay. We were following procedures. We can go to Supreme Court when we don’t get justice at the lower level. See what has happened now. The court has asked us to go back to CWMA,” he pointed out.
Mr. Shivakumar also said that the Supreme Court had dismissed appeals of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and had directed both to approach the CWMA.
