After being ridiculed by the people, particularly those from Mandya, for not doing enough to protect the state’s interests, Congress leaders on Monday lobbied hard in New Delhi. A Congress delegation, led by external affairs minister S.M. Krishna, met PM Dr Manmohan Singh and asked him to immediately issue an order to stop the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. The delegation explained to the Prime Minister the problems being faced by Karnataka.
“We take the privilege to request you kindly to issue necessary directions to stop the release of water from dams in Karnataka immediately to evolve a distress-sharing formula at the earliest,” the delegation stated in the memorandum presented to Dr Singh. But the timing of the Congress and BJP meetings with the Prime Minister on Monday, gave rise to doubts that the Congress leaders were trying to outsmart the BJP and send a message to the people of the state that they too were working hard on the Cauvery issue. The BJP delegation, led by MP Ananth Kumar, was to meet the PM at 12.30 pm. The Congress leaders, who might have felt that the people in the state were not convinced about their efforts, met the PM earlier at 11.30 am and presented their appeal.
The Congress team said that the situation in Karnataka has turned grim after the Cauvery River Authority’s diktat and subsequent Supreme Court order to abide by the CRA’s decision on September 19. “The Karnataka Legis-lature had passed a resolution after the final award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal was passed, and politely rejected the award. This resolution is the product of the aspirations of the people of Karnataka. The CRA decision came as a shock to Karnataka in the wake of the distress situation being faced by the state,” the delegation said.