H2O: very inflammable

The Cauvery river waters dispute, which is steadily spiralling out of control, is a classic instance of how politics can turn a sensitive is...

The Cauvery river waters dispute, which is steadily spiralling out of control, is a classic instance of how politics can turn a sensitive issue into a volatile one.

Consider the situation involving two major southern states today. On the one hand, there is the chief minister of Karnataka on a padyatra, ostensibly to quell tensions but in reality only to gain quick political mileage for himself as 8216;saviour8217; of the state before his political rivals do so.

On the other hand, we have the chief minister of Tamil Nadu using language that is intemperate and unnecessarily provocative, even as a bandh has been called in the state.

Yet past experience should have told both the chief ministers that padyatras, bandhs and even the tendency to rush to the Supreme Court every now and then, can be no solution to as vexed an issue as the Cauvery river waters dispute that has flared up with unhappy regularity these last hundred years and more.

There is, in fact, no way out of the Cauvery imbroglio than to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. And, as has been observed time and again, the tenor and tone of negotiation is at variation with the tenor and tone of politics. While one seeks to lower temperatures and search for areas of agreement, the other thrives on raising passions and creating differences. There can be no mistaking that it is the former approach that must prevail when it comes to addressing the Cauvery issue rather than the latter.

In fact, the only time when there was actually some progress in arriving at an understanding on the issue was when the chief ministers of the two states consciously sought to work together on it in a spirit of give and take. Politicians of all persuasions in both states who are eager to fish in the troubled Cauvery waters had better understand this well 8212; they are not doing their own cause much good by stoking public anger.

There is another aspect that needs highlighting. The Cauvery dispute is fast becoming a test of Indian nationhood. If representatives from two states cannot sit across the table and sort out their disagreements without the concerned states practically going to war against each other 8212; things have come to such a pass that Karnataka has stopped the screening of Tamil films and Tamil Nadu plans to stop power supply to Karnataka from the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, even as train services between the two states have been temporarily suspended 8212; what does this say about our national institutions and instruments of conflict resolution?

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The sufferings of the poor drought-ridden farmers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are certainly not going to disappear through such antics. For the sake of the country, if not for their own sakes, the governments of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka need to rise above their parochial agendas and address the issue before them as two entities within one nation.