Even as the protest against the BJP government at the Centre for seeking more time to constitute the Cauvery Management Board rocked the state for the fifth consecutive day, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam who took part in a day-long hunger strike on Tuesday choose to attack their arch rival DMK and held it solely responsible for the decades-long Cauvery river dispute but did not even condemn the Centre for the delay.
Even as the protest against the BJP government at the Centre for seeking more time to constitute the Cauvery Management Board rocked the state for the fifth consecutive day, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam who took part in a day-long hunger strike on Tuesday choose to attack their arch rival DMK and held it solely responsible for the decades-long Cauvery river dispute but did not even condemn the Centre for the delay.
AIADMK’s statewide hunger strike coincided with the shutdown called by a section of traders, pharmacists and hoteliers which has evoked a mixed response. AM Vikramaraja, president of Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peramaippu (Confederation of Traders' Associations) said that around 21 lakh shops are closed to protest against the Centre on the Cauvery issue. There will be a meeting of all the traders' organisations to decide on further action, and it would support the bandh called by the DMK and other parties on April 5 as well, he said.
The participation of Palaniswami and Panneerselvam in the hunger strike came as a surprise as the party had earlier said that all other leaders, barring them, would take part in the fast. Their names did not figure in the list of district wise participants of the AIADMK either.
Accusing the DMK of doing injustice to the farmers in the Cauvery issue, Palaniswami, while ending the token fast, said DMK was in power both at the state and the centre when the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal passed its final order in February 2007. “If the DMK had threatened to pull out of the Congress government, the CMB could have been formed at that time itself,” he said, noting that it was the DMK government headed by M Karunanidhi in 1974 that did not renew the 1924 agreement on the Cauvery.
Panneerselvam, who is the coordinator of the AIADMK asserted that both the DMK and the Congress have no moral rights to speak on the Cauvery issue. “DMK thinks that the people will forget the efforts taken by late chief minister J Jayalalithaa on the Cauvery issue. AIADMK will continue to peacefully protest until the formation of the CMB,” he declared.
DMK working president MK Stalin reacted sharply to the ruling party accusation against it saying that the AIADMK’s real face of colluding in the treacherous act (of the centre in delaying the setting up of the CMB) has been exposed in the hunger strike conducted by them. “Without having the courage to criticise the BJP government at the centre for failing to form the CMB, it is highly condemnable that AIADMK has chosen to attack the opposition parties,” he said.
The cadres of DMK along with allies Congress, MDMK and IUML and other like-minded parties – Left parties and VCK staged road rokos in various parts of the state seeking the CMB and courted arrest. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dhinakaran along with farmers’ outfits leaders were arrested when they attempted to enter the Tiruchy airport and block the runways in protest against the centre.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit is in Delhi to apprise the Centre on the law and order situation in the state over the Cauvery issue. He had met Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan and advocate general Vijay Narayan before heading for Delhi.
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