“Our focus should be on efforts to reverse climate change and not to fight over river water sharing,” Prakash Raj, actor and activist, said here on Wednesday.
“I know that no party will ever solve the Cauvery water issue. Everyone is playing politics over the issue. If several nations are peacefully using the waters of the Nile, why can’t two States do so with the Cauvery?” he asked.
“People in power are making us fight with each other. We should see through their plans and work together,” he said.
He spoke against the trend of involving actors and others in political issues without letting them understand the basics of those issues.
“The situation is very bad in the Cauvery basin. Forests are being destroyed, the river basin is being robbed of sand and there is no effort to recharge the groundwater,” he said.
“We should focus on afforestation and pressure our rulers to stop sand mining in the river basin,” he said.
He said he was producing a documentary on ecology that would address the issues of Cauvery and Mahadayi and other issues in equal measure.
‘Fight with all parties’
“My fight is against all parties and leaders, which are anti-people and anti - democratic. But my immediate focus is the BJP,” he said.
He alleged that the saffron party was killing the spirit of harmony, secularism and equality and hence, had to be tackled immediately.
He said he would raise questions about governance by all parties, as a common man and not as a member of any party.
He said he had been asking several questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to his silence on the spread of hatred, but had not received any replies.
Mr. Raj thinks that the future of India is to evolve into a strong federal structure.
He also feels the future of Indian democracy was in the evolution of dynamic regional parties that address local issues, and not national parties.
‘Lack of solidarity’
He admitted that there was lack of solidarity among liberal progressive groups.
“This can be addressed by developing a network of all such groups based on multi-dimensional communication and trust,” he said.
