The legal tussle between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on sharing Kaveri river water is older than a century, even when the two states were geographical representatives of Madras Presidency and Mysore Presidency under the rule of then British India. The dispute has seen a lot of agreements, disagreements, litigations, fact-finding missions, political fights, and even riots. The recent Supreme Court ruling asking the Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu each day for the next 10 days and the widespread protest, which followed the court order in Karnataka, in areas adjoining its state border with Tamil Nadu like Mandya, are signs of how history is repeating itself. Every time there is a deficit monsoonal rainfall, the two states go into loggerheads on sharing the river water. Eventually, the dispute is taken to the Supreme Court and the judgment takes either one of them or both to the streets.
Kaveri river, which originates from Kodagu in Karnataka travels a distance of 500 miles through some parts of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry till it thins out and drains into the Bay of Bengal. According to the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal's final award, dated 19th February 2013, 37% of Kaveri water would be used by Karnataka and the state should share 58% with Tamil Nadu, 4% with Kerala and 1% with Puducherry. But what we learn from the past is courtroom verdicts have not completely solved this problem till date, although they have been providing temporary reprieve time to time. Though some of these verdicts were backed by fact-finding reports, the states have been unwilling to accept them wholeheartedly, primarily due to divisive politics in the lines of linguistic identification, played by some political parties within these states. They have been feeding insecurity in the minds of farmers and discontent among people on either side.
We saw in the last few days, protests and rioting in many parts of Karnataka. Some of the state buses from Tamil Nadu were marked by protesters with the phrase "Ee Cauvery Namadhu (This Kaveri is ours)." What they must understand is, if there is a deficit monsoon it is going to affect farmers in Karnataka as well in Tamil Nadu. Both of them could lose their crops. Rather than being empathetic towards the disaster farmers in general face, a number of fringe political groups are taking advantage of the crisis to promote themselves as guardians of people. It is needless to say, a similar stand was taken by certain outfits in Tamil Nadu as well, earlier during crisis situations in the past. Now, what if in future, when the water levels in dams and reservoirs in Karnataka breaches safer levels, and Karnataka has to drain excess water into the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu, will these outfits still say "Ee Cauvery Namadhu", and let themselves drown in the floods? Biased emotional rhetoric as this may win some political brownie points, but it will only dampen the relationship between people of these states.
The Kaveri river water dispute has seen many serious riots even before. In what way can we justify the destruction of public property and obstruction of free movement of public across these states? It is a menace that has to stop. People who resort to damaging public property, whether in Karnataka or in Tamil Nadu should know that it is not their private property. If they want to display masculinity through vandalism, they should gut their own vehicles. By fomenting hatred among people they are simply making them more vulnerable. Will members of any chest-thumping political outfit in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu go to the other state to protect their brethren, if there are riots targeting them? They may just burn effigies and stone buses. These kind of people in both states are the real problem. The more they succeed in dividing people, the more the problem would worsen. With that, we may never be able to find a lasting solution to Kaveri water dispute. So let's be honest and stop playing politics on this issue.
Linguistic division of state borders has proven itself as a failed idea, at least in this case. Marking of state boundaries using geographical factors would have put an end to this problem, but we chose division of states using a man-made boundary called language. We have been seeing how partition on the lines of another man-made boundary called religion has left us with the lasting problem of Kashmir. At least let's not make language (linguistic identity and its allied culture) into another religion to fight over.
A permanent solution may be possible only when people come together to address the issue. Water sharing could be brought within a common administrative mechanism with members from all political parties, farmers associations, citizen groups and other experts belonging to all the four concerned states as its representatives. It could function as one team, and appraise people in all these states with real-time facts like the water level in dams and reservoirs, water needs of farmers across the states, monsoonal owes and other disaster situations. They should convey in one unified voice, the rationale behind any fair judgment. If people can understand that the plight of farmers and the general public under drought conditions are the same, no matter which state they belong to, they might see it as a common problem that needs a cooperative stance. What we may never achieve through confrontation, we might achieve through a process of engagement. But what we must remember is any tangible solution to Kaveri water dispute is possible only when divisive attitude ceases to exist and the solution will last only till unity prevails.
Kaveri river, which originates from Kodagu in Karnataka travels a distance of 500 miles through some parts of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry till it thins out and drains into the Bay of Bengal. According to the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal's final award, dated 19th February 2013, 37% of Kaveri water would be used by Karnataka and the state should share 58% with Tamil Nadu, 4% with Kerala and 1% with Puducherry. But what we learn from the past is courtroom verdicts have not completely solved this problem till date, although they have been providing temporary reprieve time to time. Though some of these verdicts were backed by fact-finding reports, the states have been unwilling to accept them wholeheartedly, primarily due to divisive politics in the lines of linguistic identification, played by some political parties within these states. They have been feeding insecurity in the minds of farmers and discontent among people on either side.
We saw in the last few days, protests and rioting in many parts of Karnataka. Some of the state buses from Tamil Nadu were marked by protesters with the phrase "Ee Cauvery Namadhu (This Kaveri is ours)." What they must understand is, if there is a deficit monsoon it is going to affect farmers in Karnataka as well in Tamil Nadu. Both of them could lose their crops. Rather than being empathetic towards the disaster farmers in general face, a number of fringe political groups are taking advantage of the crisis to promote themselves as guardians of people. It is needless to say, a similar stand was taken by certain outfits in Tamil Nadu as well, earlier during crisis situations in the past. Now, what if in future, when the water levels in dams and reservoirs in Karnataka breaches safer levels, and Karnataka has to drain excess water into the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu, will these outfits still say "Ee Cauvery Namadhu", and let themselves drown in the floods? Biased emotional rhetoric as this may win some political brownie points, but it will only dampen the relationship between people of these states.
The Kaveri river water dispute has seen many serious riots even before. In what way can we justify the destruction of public property and obstruction of free movement of public across these states? It is a menace that has to stop. People who resort to damaging public property, whether in Karnataka or in Tamil Nadu should know that it is not their private property. If they want to display masculinity through vandalism, they should gut their own vehicles. By fomenting hatred among people they are simply making them more vulnerable. Will members of any chest-thumping political outfit in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu go to the other state to protect their brethren, if there are riots targeting them? They may just burn effigies and stone buses. These kind of people in both states are the real problem. The more they succeed in dividing people, the more the problem would worsen. With that, we may never be able to find a lasting solution to Kaveri water dispute. So let's be honest and stop playing politics on this issue.
Linguistic division of state borders has proven itself as a failed idea, at least in this case. Marking of state boundaries using geographical factors would have put an end to this problem, but we chose division of states using a man-made boundary called language. We have been seeing how partition on the lines of another man-made boundary called religion has left us with the lasting problem of Kashmir. At least let's not make language (linguistic identity and its allied culture) into another religion to fight over.
A permanent solution may be possible only when people come together to address the issue. Water sharing could be brought within a common administrative mechanism with members from all political parties, farmers associations, citizen groups and other experts belonging to all the four concerned states as its representatives. It could function as one team, and appraise people in all these states with real-time facts like the water level in dams and reservoirs, water needs of farmers across the states, monsoonal owes and other disaster situations. They should convey in one unified voice, the rationale behind any fair judgment. If people can understand that the plight of farmers and the general public under drought conditions are the same, no matter which state they belong to, they might see it as a common problem that needs a cooperative stance. What we may never achieve through confrontation, we might achieve through a process of engagement. But what we must remember is any tangible solution to Kaveri water dispute is possible only when divisive attitude ceases to exist and the solution will last only till unity prevails.