'Legislature's resolution would amount to contempt of court'

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister B Janardhana Poojary has said that the ‘daring’ resolution, passed by the state legislature on Friday is a clear message that it cannot release more water to Tamil Nadu. But it would amount to contempt of court, he felt. Briefing mediapersons here on Saturday, he said that the contempt of court would create problems in the state.

The state is reeling under such a crisis as the government has failed to submit the affidavit in the Supreme Court with facts and figures, he said. He asked whether the government has pledged six crore people to state’s counsel Fali S Nariman and it looks like there are no sufficient irrigation experts and advocates with the state government. “I don’t have any anger or hate towards Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He has been implementing a lot of welfare programmes in the state. But the chief minister has become weak in connection with the issue of sharing of Cauvery water,” he observed.

“I appreciate the unanimous decision of the state legislature, cutting across the party lines, not to release water to Tamil Nadu and to utilise the available water in the Cauvery reservoirs only for drinking requirements of Bengaluru and other towns and villages. However, it is a reckless move,” he said.

Options
To a query on what the government could have done in this tricky situation, the senior Congress leader said instead of taking the ‘daring’ decision, all the MLAs could have tendered mass resignation irrespective of party barriers and thereby created a constitutional crisis in the state, forcing the Centre to intervene and solve the issue immediately. He asked, “In a federal system, whether the prime Minister has no responsibility towards states?” he asked. “When two or three states are engaged in a dispute, then it is the responsibility of the prime minister to intervene and solve the issue,” he observed.