Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa today accepted the gauntlet thrown by her arch rival, DMK president M Karunanidhi, for an open debate on the Cauvery issue, saying she was prepared to face him in the state Assembly.
Repeatedly charging Karunanidhi with betraying the state on the emotive inter-state river water-sharing dispute with Karnataka, Jayalalithaa said the DMK patriarch should make up his mind on accepting her challenge and announce it publicly “lest he himself accept he had betrayed” the people, she said. Addressing an election rally here, she recalled Karunanidhi had in a recent public meeting at Tiruvarur asked if the two could debate the issue in the Assembly.
“I accept Karunanidhi’s challenge. I am ready to discuss the Cauvery issue in the next Assembly session to be convened after the polls. I am ready to list out Karunanidhi’s betrayals,” she said.
She laid down a condition that only Karunanidhi should face her and not his trusted deputy Duraimurugan or some other representative. “Is Karunanidhi ready to accept this? Is he ready to come to the Assembly? Is he ready to debate with me directly? He should declare whether he accepts this or not. Or else it would amount to him admitting that it is true that betrayals were done (by him),” she said.
The “betrayals” of the DMK chief-led rule included allowing Karnataka to construct dams across the river besides not taking steps for publishing the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal in the Central gazette, she charged.
