nThe memorandum listing 25 demands submitted by Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday have evoked the first wave of strong reaction from neighbouring Kerala.
Stalin in his first visit to the national capital after assuming charge as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu had come with a “shopping list” which includes demands like raising the water level of the controversial Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala to 152 ft and denying Karnataka the right to build Mekedattu Dam across Cauvery River.
He has also asked the Centre to retrieve the Katchatheevu islet ceded by India to Sri Lanka in 1975 during the tenure of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister. Another demand made by the Chief Minister is the abolition of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for students from Tamil Nadu and also the dropping of the Centre’s move to introduce all-India examination for other graduate and post graduate courses.
Any demand by Tamil Nadu over the Mullaperiyar Dam is sure to create chaos in neighboring Kerala. The 126-year-old reservoir is a bone of contention between the two southern States since 1947 when India became an independent country from the colonial masters.
The Supreme Court has allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level to 142 ft though the Dam’s Full Reservoir Level is 172 ft. The contention of Kerala was that if the water level was raised from the existing level of 134 ft, it would lead to a major disaster putting a population of more than three million spread across the districts of Idukki, Kottayam and Ernakulam at the mercy of nature.
“I am sure the Centre would not heed to the demand made by Tamil Nadu chief minister Stalin. The lives of more than three million people are at stake. The dam has outlived its utility and it is time we thought about a new dam,” said P C George, seven-time member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly who is also a farming leader from the State’s High Ranges. He said that the Mullaperiyar Dam does not have the strength to hold even the 142 ft water in ts reservoir and referred to the 2018 deluge which caused widespread damages to life and property in the State.
What makes the issue politically sensitive would be the approach of CPI(M) towards the Tamil Nadu’s demand. The Marxists, their poor cousins the CPI and the Congress are in alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu as well as in rest of the country. How the CPI(M) will convince the population in the three districts would be of interest.
“The exemption demanded by the Tamil Nadu government from NEET as well as other all India engineering examinations are out of question. There cannot be two laws in the country on an important issue like this. The admission to under graduate and post graduate courses in engineering and medical colleges should be uniform throughout the country,” K Ram Kumar, senior lawyer and Constitutional expert, told The Pioneer.
Political commentators and former diplomats are of the view that most of the issues listed in the memorandum were political gimmicks. The then Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had told a Bench led by the then Chief Justice of India R M Lodha in August 2014 that India would have to wage a war with Sri Lanka to retrieve Katchatheevu islet.
“Katchatheevu has gone to Sri Lanka by an agreement in 1974. It was ceded and now acts as a boundary. How can it be taken back today? If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back,” the AG had been quoted as telling the then CJI.
Govindarajan Satyamurthy, commentator based in Coimbatore, is of the voew that most of the demands listed in the Memorandum were to divert the attention of the people from real issues.