The pro-Kannada organisations, which have called for a Statewide bandh on Saturday to voice their opposition to the Cauvery River Authority’s (CRA) directive to Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu, have sought to allay apprehensions over security to Tamil-speaking people in the State.
Karnataka Rakshana Vedike president T.A. Narayana Gowda said the agitation is not aimed at anybody. Pro-Kannada organisations are showing their resentment against injustice to Karnataka by the CRA, which knows fully well the ground reality in the drought-hit Cauvery basin. “Tamil-speaking people need not be anxious as they are part of Karnataka.”
Writer-activist Devanooru Mahadeva said: “Cauvery is not an issue of language and there is no meaning in reducing it to one. It is a question of water, land and livelihood, which should never be politicised. There should be more initiatives involving farmers on the lines of the Cauvery Family formation. If not, this problem will go on interminably. We need to think of scientific and sensible use of water to save ourselves and the earth…. That said, it is also true that documents and arguments play a big role in deciding these matters in the court. The government has not succeeded in protecting its interests.”
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Writer and Swabhimani Karnataka Vedike president Chandrashekhar Patil said: “This is a people’s movement as it involves livelihoods. However, politics does get invariably mixed up because all parties see an opportunity here, though it should be above such considerations. The BJP too did not handle the situation in the true statesman’s spirit with patience and in the right manner.… Fortunately, there is no attempt by any quarter to turn this agitation into a language issue.”