Click to play videoChennai: Tempers are still high in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the multi-crore Hogenakkal drinking water project.
Pro-Kannada activists plan to black out Tamil TV channels and stop the screening of Tamil films in Karnataka from Wednesday. They had on Monday demonstrated outside movie theatres screening Tamil films. The bitterly divided Tamil Nadu Assembly in a rare instance of unanimity passed a resolution asking the Centre to protect “the rights of the Tamil people” in Karnataka.
"There are protests from some linguistic chauvinists in Karnataka who are acting against the sentiments and welfare of the Tamils. The Central government is responsible for the unity and sovereignty of the country and we urge them to protect the rights of the Tamil people,” the resolution said.
"We are only using the share of water allocated to us by. Some mischievous elements in Karnataka are making protests," said Durai Murugan, Tamil Nadu’s PWD Minister.
As Tamil cinema and politics find common ground on the Hogenakkal issue, it has become a tricky question for the Congress. On the one side it has to deal with its ally the DMK and on the other crucial Assembly elections in Karnataka.
If the BJP takes over the Hogenakkal issue it could reap a political harvest in southern Karnataka. Hence, the Congress in Karnataka needs to make the right political noise.
The Congress says it is committed to protecting the interests of Karnataka but wants an amicable solution to the issue. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to stop making provocative statements.
“Mr Karunanidhi is a senior politician and an experienced man, but he is unnecessarily giving provocative statements,” Kharge told CNN-IBN
Karnataka says Tamil’s water supply project will affect its interests. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had on Sunday said that an Rs 1,334-crore project in Hogenakkal waterfalls on the border of the two states would be completed at any cost.
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