"Cauvery issue no threat to Centre"

CHENNAI, July 26: BJP All India general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that the Cauvery water issue would be solved amicably b...

CHENNAI, July 26: BJP All India general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that the Cauvery water issue would be solved amicably by the Centre even before the expiry of Supreme Court’s August 12 deadline to solve the water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He said the BJP was exploring all avenues to work out a solution “broadly acceptable” to both the riparian States and that the issue did not pose any threat to the government.

Asked about AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha’s observation that the Centre was biased towards Karnataka on the Cauvery issue and that it lacked political will to find a solution to the dispute, Naidu quipped: “You will know whether we have will or not soon when the solution is found.”

However, he refused to comment on Jayalalitha’s harangue against the BJP leadership, saying, “We will not join issue with our allies.” On Jayalalitha’s warning to the BJP government that there would be dangerous consequences if Tamil Nadu did not get its due share ofCauvery waters, he merely said, “ There will be no problem to the government because of the Cauvery issue.”

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Naidu said, “There were bound to be perceptional differences in a coalition.” On the stability of the BJP government, he said it would last its full term as there was no “alternative”.

He described the attempts of Buta Singh to win Jayalalitha’s support for a possible Congress-led alternative at the Centre as “desperate moves of frustrated politicians”. He flayed the Opposition parties for adopting a confrontationist attitude.

Naidu said the party’s national executive meet will be held in Jaipur from August 21 to 23 to chalk out the strategy to counter the “disinformation campaign” of the Opposition parties.

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