Jaya goes sentimental on Kannada

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa was happy to speak in Kannada after many years during her interaction with her Karnataka counterpart Jagadish Shettar at the CRA meeting held in Delhi. But, the lady from Mandya refused to show any flexibility on sharing the water of Cauvery.

According to a senior member of the state delegation which participated in the CRA meeting held in Delhi on September 19, prime minister Manmohan Singh asked the chief ministers of both states and other ministers to have a separate talk among themselves before he pronounced his order.
Shettar and water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai tried to break the ice with the stonefaced Jayalalithaa initially. After a few moments she smiled at them.

Bommai suggested to Shettar that it was the right time to talk to her. A hesitant Shettar in turn told Bommai to initiate the conversation. Bommai greeted Jayalalithaa in Kannada and told her that he is the son of former chief minister SR Bommai. Jayalalithaa told him in Kannada that she knew his father. When she became comfortable, Jayalalithaa told Bommai that she rarely gets to talk in Kannada.

“I speak in Kannada with film actress B Saroja Devi often. I am forgetting the words and the language,” Jayalalithaa reportedly said, as she opened up.

When Bommai asked her not to insist on the release of water, Jayalalithaa in turn asked Bommai to release the water to Tamil Nadu without any delay, in Kannada. Sources also explained that Jayalalithaa slammed the prime minister for failing to convene CRA meetings six times in the past when the situation needed it, and also indirectly referred to him as an ineffective administrator.