Tamil Nadu is all set to witness an action-packed week of agitations, bandhs and demonstrations by various farmers’ outfits, political parties and even student associations demanding the immediate constitution of the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee as per the February 16 Supreme Court order.
A sense of uncertainty and tension is discernible all over the State as political parties and various outfits are getting ready for a showdown with the Centre. On Tuesday, the ruling AIADMK will stage a State-wide fast to force the Centre to see the writing on the wall.
A curtain raiser to the troubled days was staged by the DMK, principal Opposition party, when it organised a massive demonstration at Valluvarkottam in Chennai on Sunday. The demonstration got transformed into a road roko as the party activists led by working president MK Stalin and his son Udayanidhi blocked the flow of traffic along the Arcot Road, one of the main thoroughfares in the metropolis.
Earlier in the day, Stalin announced that the party would organise a Tamil Nadu bandh on Thursday (April 5) in unison with other Opposition parties to force the Centre to constitute the CMB.
“We will ask the AIADMK too to join in this State-wide bundh,” said Stalin while speaking to reporters on Sunday. The DMK working president presided over a meeting which was attended among others by all major Opposition party leaders, including S Thirunavakarassar (Congress), K Veeramani (DK), and other constituents in the front.
The meeting also endorsed the DMK’s decision to stage black flag demonstration against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the failure of the Centre to constitute the CMB. “Tamil Nadu will see a series of agitations for the Cauvery water from here onwards. We are demanding out rights and not any alms,” said Stalin.
Meanwhile, all major farmers’ associations in the State have called for a bandh on April 3 for the same cause. All traders in Tamil Nadu would down their shutters throughout the State on the same day to express their solidarity with the farming community.
The announcement about the April 3 bandh was made by S Ranganathan, septuagenarian president of Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, P R Pandian of Tamil Nadu All Farmers Association and P Ayyakannu, the controversial farmer leader who staged a streaking in New Delhi last year.
The border between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka was tense following the decision by various Kannada political outfits not to screen any Tamil films in Karnataka. The State has a considerable Tamil population and any kind of ethnic unrest arising out of Cauvery imbroglio could have
disastrous effects, said intelligence officials.
What adds to the woes of the State Government is the well planned but secret flash demonstrations to be held by the youth wings of various left, Extreme left and Tamil chauvinistic unions in the State.
Nearly 50 students staged a flash protest march in Chennai’s Marina Beach on Friday to express their resentment against the Centre over the delay in constituting the CMB.
Meanwhile Tamil Nadu is also witnessing a massive protest against the expansion plans of Sterlite Copper, part of the Anil Aggarwal owned Vedanta group to set up a copper smelter plant at Thoothukudi. Besides professional agitators like Vaiko, film actor Kamal Haassan too has pitched his tent at Thoothukudi in southern Tamil Nadu against the Sterlite plant.