BENGALURU: Farmer leader Kurubur Shantakumar on Monday accused Deputy Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar of not being serious enough over the Cauvery water issue. Talking to The New Indian Express, he said Shivakumar is saddled with too many responsibilities. Apart from being the deputy chief minister and water resources minister, he is also the Bengaluru in-charge minister and president of the state Congress.
This has not allowed him to dedicate the required time to the Cauvery issue, Shantakumar said.
“Recently, we were protesting in Mysuru and the government had already started releasing water three days previously. But Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he was not aware of it. I am not blaming Shivakumar. He has too many responsibilities on his shoulders. Where is the need to burden a person with so much work,” he asked.
“I have heard that when Cauvery meetings are called with the legal team in New Delhi, Karnataka authorities have attended them through video-conferencing. They should go to Delhi and hold talks. There are no shortcuts. If the state government had issues with finances, we could have collected money from farmers and given it to them to buy tickets to go to Delhi,” he said sarcastically.
However, legal experts who were earlier part of the Karnataka legal team that fought the Cauvery issue and who now practice at the Supreme Court and several high courts, disagreed with Shantakumar’s statement.
“What is the need to go to Delhi to the Supreme Court when it can be done online? Even in constitutional matters, senior counsel in the Supreme Court have argued matters online using technology. It is just as effective and no one can fault Shivakumar or his team for that,” they said.
Another farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar said, “Shivakumar could have been more serious and discreet about the Cauvery issue. When the meteorological department warned that there could be substantially less rainfall this year, they could have been alert and not released water.’’
Meanwhile, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president and chief whip in the Council Saleem Ahmed said, “It is wrong to blame anyone here. BJP has 25 MPs, five ministers and how is it they have not helped? How is it that PM Modi did not give us time to discuss Cauvery.”
Meanwhile, political analyst BS Murthy said, “The government should not have let the situation come to this pass. They should have taken a reconciliatory approach.’’
Analysts too said the government should not have allowed the narrative to go against it.