DMK leader M. Karunanidhi urged Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the Supreme Court order directing Karnataka to release Cauvery water vis-a-vis the fallout of the implementation.
In a statement here, he recalled an editorial of The Hindu stressing the need for an all-party meeting as there was a consensus among the political parties on the issue. Mr. Karunanidhi said when the DMK was in power between 1996 and 2001, he held an all-party meeting in a short span of a week after the then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee invited him to Delhi to discuss implementation of the interim award of the Cauvery Water Tribunal.
“But the AIADMK refused to attend the meeting since the party has no faith in democracy, tolerance, respect for the Opposition and different views,” he said.
Mr. Karunanidhi also recalled his visit to Karnataka to meet the late Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde in 1983 to request him to release Cauvery water. “He promised to do his best and subsequently released water. I was 59 then and I did not remain indifferent to the problems of the State even though I was the Leader of the Opposition.”
