Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has launched a hunger strike in protest over Friday’s Supreme Court order directing Karnataka to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Deve Gowda, who is also a former chief minister of the state, launched the hunger strike in front of the Gandhi statue in Vidhan Soudha on Saturday morning.
He said that he has apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his protest.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a stern warning to Karnataka for non-compliance of its orders on Tuesday. On Friday, it directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water every day to Tamil Nadu from October 1-6.
On Friday, the division bench of justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit said, "The State of Karnataka should not be bent upon maintaining a stand of defiance, where the wrath of law fall on them," it said in its order.
Deve Gowda is one of the tallest figures of the state’s political class. He has backed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah all way in the legal dispute after Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court a couple of months ago.
When the combined storage in the four reservoirs on the Cauvery – KRS, Kabini, Hemavathy and Harangi – stood at about 26 tmcft, the Chief Minister called another all-party meeting. However, ahead of this meeting, Siddaramaiah met his former mentor Deve Gowda at his house.
Although the BJP boycotted the meeting, Deve Gowda had appealed to them not to do so, that the resolution of the situation that the state government faced, required the participation of all political parties irrespective of ideological differences.
Although he has backed Siddaramaiah’s position that the Prime Minister should intervene and mediate a solution between the two states, this may no longer be possible as the Supreme Court has directed that the centre constitute the Cauvery Water Management Board for this purpose by October 4. The four states – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry – have been directed to furnish the names of their nominees within the stipulated time.