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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, Aug 12: The Cauvery and its flood of problems it seems is all set to drown the fledgling BJP-led coalition government at the Centre as Jaylalitha aide and Union Law Minister Thambidurai announced that a decision on the withdrawal of support would be taken tomorrow.
The two rounds of talks with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s emissaries George Fernandes and Pramod Mahajan apparently could not convince the irrepressible Jayalalitha to keep things above danger level.
In short, the talks appear to have broken down.
The Prime Ministers envoys’ meetings with Jayalalitha at her Poes Garden residence first for an hour by noon and later for 25 minutes in the evening came in the wake of Jayalalitha’s warning to review the AIADMK-led front’s support to the government if it failed to notify the original draft scheme on the Cauvery issue.
Immediately after Fernandes and Mahajan left, Union Law Minister Thambiduri and Surface Transport Minister Kadambur Janardhanam was called in by Jayalalitha forconsultations fuelling speculation that the AIADMK ministers in the Union Cabinet would be asked to be ready to resign.
To a barrage of media queries, Thambidurai, emerging from the meeting, said that any final decision would emerge only after the meeting of the party’s allies tomorrow.
Party sources confirming there was no breakthrough in the second round of talks, said Jayalalitha told the emissaries that the Vajpayee government had betrayed its allies led by the AIADMK. Explaining that she made it clear to the envoys that there could not be any compromise on the Cauvery issue, Jayalalitha also reportedly expressed her unhappiness over the Centre “not even showing the courtesy” to inform her that the revised draft scheme was being notified and was being submitted to the Supreme Court today.
The crisis arose with Jayalalitha rejecting a revised draft scheme hammered out by the Centre in consultation with the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry to implement the interimaward of the Cauvery tribunal.
She insisted on notification of the original draft scheme and threatened to review support of the 27-member AIADMK front in the Lok Sabha to the Vajpayee government if it failed to do so.
Ignoring the threat, the Vajpayee government notified the revised scheme last evening and Jayalalitha promptly convened a meeting of her allies on August 13 to decide future course of action.
