Today Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet a delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu, who will urge him to get the Karnataka government to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. The prime minister would, consequently, find himself in the exact position that Prime Minister Vajpayee was two years ago, with an angry J. Jayalalithaa on the warpath on this very issue. The picture is a familiar one: two acutely water deficit states having to contend with the extremely emotive issue of parched fields and widespread distress; one hapless Central government, with close political connections and ambitions in both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; and one river.So how should Prime Minister Manmohan Singh handle the problem? The United Progressive Alliance Government is arguably better placed to address the Cauvery issue than its predecessor was. For two reasons — both entirely fortuitous. First, some sense seems to have descended on the two main political parties in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK and the DMK. Both appear to have come around to the view that the Cauvery water issue is a state issue and should not be a source of political oneupmanship between them. This could make for a more level-headed approach to the process of searching for solutions. Meanwhile, two of Karnataka’s main parties — the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) — have come together in a coalition government, which should make for a more unified, and hopefully more rational, response to the Cauvery waters issue.The fact is that there have been eminently sensible water sharing formulae worked out between the two states. Indeed, there is also a viable formula for sharing water in times of distress and chronic water shortage. It is important, therefore, for both states to review them and then abide by them, instead of needlessly raising political temperatures and rushing to the courts. We have been through that acrimonious scenario over and over again. It has yielded neither water nor solutions. Let Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, instead of battling each other, make an honest attempt to battle the problem of endemic drought together.
