October 18 is still a month away, but Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is eagerly awaiting its arrival. On that day, the Supreme Court will hear Karnataka's special leave petition against the Cauvery water dispute tribunal's 2007 decision to award Tamil Nadu 419 thousand million cubic feet (tmc feet) of the total 740 tmc of water from the Cauvery basin.
Karnataka had earlier protested the decision and demanded more water from the tribunal. The tribunal took 16 years to deliver the award that ignored to quantify the water-sharing formula during times of distress - like this year, when reservoirs were half full due to a 90 per cent rainfall deficit in Karnataka.
The tribunal's award gave Karnataka - where the Cauvery originates - 270 tmc feet of water. Kerala got 30 tmc feet and and Puducherry seven tmc feet of water. Karnataka has sought 312 tmc feet in its appeal; Tamil Nadu has also demanded more water.
Siddaramaiah is keen that his legal team, led by advocate Fali Nariman, is prepared for this court battle. Until D-Day comes, he cannot afford to antagonise the Supreme Court (SC), even in the face of setbacks in the top court after it directed the state to release more water to Tamil Nadu. Following the violence in Bengaluru recently over the issue, Siddaramaiah was under pressure to emulate former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna: defy the SC order, go on a padayatra and later apologise in the SC. But sanity prevailed: Siddaramaiah chose to abide by the SC directive to release 12,000 cusecs of water till September 20.
The chief minister is still concerned about the violence that marred Bengaluru's image as a business-friendly city. On Wednesday, he shunted two police officers whose jurisdictions witnessed violence. One person was killed in police firing and more than 400 vehicles were destroyed. The mob attack happened the same day the SC rapped Karnataka saying, "agitation, spontaneous or galvanised riot or any kind of catalytic component can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order". Karnataka had sought modification of the apex court's earlier directive to reduce the quantum of water to Tamil Nadu.
Siddaramaiah is up against a tough counterpart in Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa, who insists the tribunal award be honoured by Karnataka. Neither chief minister picks up the phone and talks to the other. Instead, they exchange letters requesting each other to protect their people, which they then release to the media.
"We understand the situation in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu," said K S Puttanaiah, a legislator from Melukote in Karnataka and president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha or state farmers' association. "We are just 300 km away (Bengaluru and Chennai), yet we don't talk to each other. In a democracy, if you don't hold talks with each other, how can you resolve an issue? Both the states should discuss with open hearts and minds."
Jayalalithaa's silence at such a time has baffled leaders in Karnataka, too. "When Raj Kumar was kidnapped, M Karunanidhi (then chief minister of Tamil Nadu) came to the Vidhana Soudha and assuaged the feelings of Kannadigas," a senior Karnataka minister said. "Now forget her coming here, she is not even talking."
This apart, Karnataka's appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene is yet to receive a response. Siddaramaiah has requested a meeting with Modi, but there has been no development after that.
Even as Modi said in a statement that "in a democracy, solutions are found through restraint and mutual dialogue" he distanced himself from the Cauvery issue, saying only that "this dispute can only be solved within the legal ambit".
Modi's party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is eyeing the 2018 Assembly elections in Karnataka. For now, the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in the Opposition has asked Siddaramaiah to convene a legislature session so that all parties can discuss Karnataka's stand. JD-S State President and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said that if no action was taken, there would be no drinking water for Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya - the three districts that depend on Cauvery water. "We will face a crisis if we go on releasing water," he said.
As the two neighbouring states spar, a supervisory committee that visited Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for the first time recently, is expected to announce a water-sharing formula for this year. The committee is expected to submit its formula on September 19.
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