Bengaluru: While the battle of emotions between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over release of Cauvery water is getting weaker a hate campaign is raging in social media with Kannadigas and Tamilians trading charges against each other.
Taking note of this trading of charges, CM Siddaramaiah tweeted, “I appeal to twitter users to not support any hate campaign. It is irresponsible and mischievous to support hate messages of any kind.” After the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water to TN to save Samba crops last week, there has been unrest in the Cauvery basin districts.
Twitter account holders of both states are using the platform to vent their anger. While Tamilians are lambasting Mr Siddaramaiah for not protecting Tamil speaking people in Karnataka, Kannadigas are flaying TN CM Jayalalithaa for demanding Cauvery water despite being aware of the failure of the monsoon.
Incidentally, on bandh day, a TN registered two-wheeler caught fire accidentally in Koramangala and was gutted. One of the twitter handlers had put up the video of the burning motorcycle claiming that it was set on fire by Kannada protesters. Similarly, a youth had put the photographs of noted sandalwood stars on his facebook account and had abused them in foul language. Observing this, a group of people caught hold of that youth and beat him black and blue for insulting Kannada film stars.
The tweets ranges from one asking why Ms Jayalalithaa wrote a letter to the Central government saying she does not want someone from Karnataka to become the governor of her state, another twitter handler has asked whether it is right to talk rubbish about Kannada language and Kannada actors.
Another person questions why the Bengaluru Police have not arrested youth who beat up a Tamilian. But, there are some tweets thanking Karnataka for releasing water to TN and hoping that the Cauvery row can be resolved by consulting all stakeholders. When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr S.D. Sharanappa said the youth who was reportedly beaten up by a group, was not ready to file a complaint.
Mr L.K. Atheeq, principal secretary to CM said he had noticed that some people had posted videos and messages by using the CM's hash tag for the hate campaign. This was brought to the notice of CM Siddaramaiah who immediately tweeted asking people not to use social media for the hate campaign. After this, “the number of tweets has reduced,” he said.
