Tamil Nadu minister slams Centre on Cauvery
Jayakumar told reporters that the apex court had itself clarified that it had only meant the Cauvery Management Board' when it mentioned scheme'.
Chennai: The war of words between the ruling AIADMK and the BJP is getting shriller indicating that their honeymoon could be heading for collapse. After the hard-hitting charge sheet against the Modi Government penned in the form of an acerbic poem in its official organ, ‘Namadhu Amma’, a couple of days ago, it now seems the turn of senior state minister D. Jayakumar to slam Delhi on the Cauvery issue.
Referring to the Supreme Court direction to the Centre to form a ‘scheme’ for implementing the court order apportioning the Cauvery water among the riparian states, minister Jayakumar told reporters that the apex court had itself clarified that it had only meant the ‘Cauvery Management Board’ when it mentioned ‘scheme’.
“If Centre wants, it can learn the meaning of ‘scheme’ from a dictionary”, he said, reiterating the anger and anguish of his government at the Centre’s handling of the CMB issue.
Refuting that the state government was unilateral in dealing with the Cauvery problem, Jayakumar said the objective of holding all-party meeting was to ensure unity among all political parties in the state on the issue.
“There is no deviation whatsoever in our government stand on fighting for Cauvery Management Board. We will continue to do it”, he asserted.
In the ‘charge sheet’ listing various acts of ‘discrimination’ hurting TN interests, AIADMK organ ‘Namadhu Amma’ had in a poem on Friday warned the ‘lotus party’ to change its ‘attitude’ immediately or else the national unity and
integrity would be fractured.
Reacting to the poem in AIADMK paper, BJP state general secretary Ms Vanathi Srinivasan said if the state government had an opinion to express against the Centre, “let the CM or deputy CM speak out openly instead of issuing veiled threats through their party organ”.
“They have the right and freedom to express their opinion boldly. Let them come out in the open and say that the Centre-State relationship will get affected due to the present (Cauvery) issue. And we can demonstrate how the Central government is right and how the Centre is serious in solving this issue. Our government is for inclusive politics”, she said.