The Lok Sabha witnessed a stormy exchange of words between the AIADMK and the BJP over the Mullaperiyar dam and Cauvery issue.
During a debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha, AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai demand the setting up of the Cauvery Management Board to ensure implementation of the award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal as well as constituting the Supervisory Committee for monitoring the water level in Mullaperiyar dam. As soon as Mr. Thambidurai raised the Cauvery issue, Railways Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda sprang to his feet in protest, followed by Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar and senior BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa – all from Karnataka.
Mr. Kumar protested the AIADMK MPs demand for the setting up of the Cauvery Management Board, describing the matter as “sub-judice.” Later, Biju Janata Dal’s Arjun Charan Sethi, who was in the Chair, said he would examine the matter and expunge the remarks if they were “sub-judice.”
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Curiously, for a few Ministers, the BJP’s Karnataka contingent received support from across the floor from the Congress members from the State.
However, in the Rajya Sabha, when AIADMK leader V. Maitreyan raised the same issues as Mr. Thambidurai, he was not interrupted. Mr. Maitreyan also recalled that during the tenure of the last government, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had repeatedly written to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on issue of Tamil fishermen but had received no reply. In sharp contrast, the Modi government, he said, had responded swiftly to two recent incidents – a subject that Mr. Thambidurai also mentioned in the Lok Sabha.