Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who sprang a surprise by joining the one-day fast organised by the ruling AIADMK on Tuesday demanding the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board, accused the DMK of enacting a “game of deceit” on the Cauvery issue.
Wrapping up the fast in Chepauk in which Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam too participated, he said: “Had they [DMK] wanted, they could have sorted out the issue even in 2007 (when it was in power). Immediately after the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal came out with the final order, if the DMK had exerted pressure on the Centre, insisting that the order be published in the gazette of the Union government and threatened the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of which the party was a constituent, the present problem would not have arisen at all,” Mr. Palaniswami contended.
The names of Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam did not originally figure in the list of leaders slated to lead the AIADMK’s protest fast programmes across Tamil Nadu.
