DMK working president and Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin on Friday urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to immediately convene the Cabinet and adopt a resolution condemning the Prime Minister’s silence on constituting the Cauvery Management Board (CMB). He alleged that the AIADMK government had failed to bring pressure on the Centre to constitute the CMB and surrendered the rights of Tamil Nadu.
The DMK would hold an all-party meeting in Chennai to discuss the next course of protests against the inaction of the Central government in constituting the CMB as directed by the Supreme Court.
Accusing the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu of working “overtime” to please the BJP government, Mr. Stalin said the Chief Minister should stop working for the benefit of the BJP whose decisions on Cauvery issue “were motivated by the (impending) elections to the Karnataka Assembly”.
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“The Chief Minister should file a contempt of court petition against the Centre for not abiding by the ruling of the Supreme Court and constituting the CMB,” he said.
Mr. Stalin said the Centre would have been under pressure to form the CMB if the state government had filed a contempt petition immediately after Union Water Resource Minister and secretary expressed opinions against the Supreme Court order.
“As far as the Cauvery water issue is concerned, both the BJP and the AIADMK behave like comrades in arms when it comes cheating Tamil Nadu,” he charged.
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Recalling Mr. Stalin’s warning that the state government should be very careful about the “scheme” mentioned in the Supreme Court order; the DMK executive council said the situation had come to such a pass since the state government ignored his warning.
“The claim of the government that it is going to seek clarification on the ‘scheme’ in the last minute is nothing but a lame excuse. The AIADMK also ridiculed Mr. Stalin’s suggestion for mass resignation of MPs from Tamil Nadu to bring pressure on the Centre. Its only agenda is to remain in power,” the resolution adopted by the DMK said.
Another resolution adopted in the executive council of the DMK accused the BJP-led Centre of betraying Tamil Nadu in one issue after another.
“After winning the (2014 Lok Sabha) election on the promise of development and eradication of corruption, the BJP government is functioning against the pluralism, secularism and federal structure of the country and also pursuing divisive policies. Its only aim is (winning) the Lok Sabha polls in 2019,” a resolution said. Incidentally, the DMK had passed a similar resolution at its recently concluded zonal conference in Erode.