With the Cauvery water dispute hitting the headlines yet again, political compulsions have clearly placed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre in a ‘catch-22’ situation.
The latest round of controversy in the long-running, inter-State row began with a statement that the Union Minister from Karnataka, Ananth Kumar, made recently over the formation of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).
The senior BJP leader informed the media in Bangalore that the Centre had no proposal to create the Board immediately.
Not wanting to be left behind, the Congress in Karnataka also upped the ante with Chief Minister Siddaramiah leading an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, asking him to put the formation of the CMB in abeyance.
He cited litigation on the water dispute pending before the Supreme Court to justify the demand, notwithstanding the fact that the apex court had made it clear that the appeal on the Cauvery Tribunal’s final award will not come in the way of forming the CMB.
For her part, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa put the CMB as an important aspect of the memorandum she submitted to Mr. Modi in New Delhi recently. In a display of deft statecraft, she also expressed hope that the Prime Minister would act impartially in the matter, putting the ball in Mr. Modi’s court.
For the BJP though, the matter is a tight-rope walk. With a minority status in the Rajya Sabha, the party would like to keep the AIADMK in good spirits if it hopes to push important reforms through Parliament in the coming months.
On the other hand, a senior BJP leader says any move to form the CMB would strengthen the hands of the ruling Congress in Karnataka.
“It would be politically unviable for the BJP leaders from Karnataka to let the formation of the Board as the blame would be squarely placed on the party,” the leader, a national secretary, points out.
This apprehension was in display in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, when Mr. Kumar and his colleague from Karnataka in the Cabinet, Sadanand Gowda, stridently opposed the reference to the issue made by AIADMK MP Thambidurai on the motion of thanks to the President’s speech.
What remains to be seen is how Mr. Modi handles the situation. As the Kuruvai (summer crop) season in the Cauvery delta region approaches, the likelihood of Ms. Jayalalithaa, despite an apparent softening towards the BJP, relenting on the issue looks slim.
This places the BJP in the same quandary that remained a bother to the previous UPA government all through its tenure. The BJP’s dilemma is further accentuated in the backdrop of its own political calculations in Tamil Nadu ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections.