Mahadayi row: legal team threatens to walk out

 The legal team defending Karnataka in the Mahadayi water dispute on Saturday threatened to walk away from the responsibility.

“If the government is not satisfied, the team will walk out in 24 hours. Nobody is indispensable when the state’s interests are at stake,” said advocate Mohan Katarki, a member of the legal team. The team expressed displeasure over the statements made by Congress MLC, V S Ugrappa.

Ugrappa had questioned the sincerity of the legal team in protecting the state’s interests. He had accused Katarki of giving a statement in the media that prime minister’s intervention was not required to resolve the issue.

Katarki said that the team had done its best. If Ugrappa had any grievance, he should ventilate it before the chief minister, instead of coming out in the public, he said.

“The legal team has consistently advised the state that the prime minister owes a responsibility to mediate, though the Centre has no constitutional power to decide the water dispute between the riparian states. In this regard, the legal team has relied on what P V Narasimha Rao had enunciated in 1991, based on PM's intervention in Narmada in 1973 and Telugu Ganga in 1978. Therefore, I could not have said that PM's intervention is “not a viable option” as alleged by Ugrappa,” he said.

“The mainstream media reports are clear on what I have said. My stand is consistent with the stand of the government that PM should intervene and therefore, there is no violation of professional ethics as Ugrappa alleges. He should have sought my clarification before rushing to the media,” Katarki said.

Not the first time

This is not the first time the team has threatened to quit. Earlier, when Congress was in opposition, some of the leaders demanded a change in the team, saying they failed to argue before the tribunal during Cauvery dispute. However, soon after the party came to power, the government decided to continue with the same legal team.