The Big Story: Fiercely flows the Cauvery

Once more, the Cauvery water-sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has roused dark passions in both states. Protests broke out on Monday, after the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu. Buses with Tamil Nadu number plates were torched in Bengaluru, curfew has been imposed in parts of the city and the two chief ministers, Tamil Nadu's J Jayalalithaa and Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, have exchanged icy letters alleging violence against people of their respective states. But the failure to bring a lasting solution to the Cauvery dispute is almost entirely a political failure.

Four states, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, fall within the Cauvery water basin, a region that has seen intensifying demands for water and increasing shortages. The major tussle has been between Tamil Nadu, which grows water intensive crops in the basin, and Karnataka, which struggles to plug the shortages created by rapid urbanisation. The dispute, which can be traced back to colonial times, has festered for years. The hope of a political solution ended long ago. The chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka last met to discuss the matter in 1997, without much result. In 2012, when the Supreme Court directed the two chief ministers to work out a solution, there was hope, once again, of a political reconciliation, but that came to nothing.

Instead, the dispute has passed to the courts, winding its way through various verdicts and tribunals. The Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, formed in 1991, passed an interim order that prescribed a water-sharing formula between the two states. That established a fragile equilibrium, disturbed only in years of distress. After the tribunal notified its final order in 2013, an exultant Jayalalithaa counted it as a political victory while her Karnataka counterpart listed various grievances against it. But nothing much has changed. The status quo exists so long as there is enough water to go around. In distress years such as this one, the old hostilities return and the two states strain against the established water-sharing formula.

These wrangles could have been smoothed over through political dialogue and negotiation. No formula can provide for them. But it is not in the interests of either chief minister to do so. The decades-old dispute has struck deep roots in the popular and political cultures of both states, and has become an emotive electoral issue. Both chief ministers could gain from grandstanding on the issue, so the rivalries, it would seem, are here to stay. But both governments need to ask themselves this: at what cost?

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story

Read the full text of the angry letters exchanged between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on the Cauvery issue.

MB Maramkal writes on the time when a breakthrough on the Cauvery issue seemed at hand but the lack of government support killed it.

Political pickings

  1. A day after a mob attacked a police station and one person was killed, allegedly in police firing, the Dholahat area of South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal remains tense.
  2. After a disastrous year in diplomacy, Delhi prepares for two neighbourly visits this week, from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda.
  3. Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa has been sacked, just months after the Supreme Court censured him for "humiliating the elected government of the day".
  4. Kashmir braces for Eid amid curfews.

Punditry

  1. In the Indian Express, Mohammad Sartaj, son of Mohammad Akhlaq, killed in Dadri last year, speaks of what freedom means to him.
  2. In the Hindu, Vijay Prashad writes on the first Non-aligned Movement Summit that will not be attended by an Indian prime minister.
  3. In the Economic Times, Pranab Dhal Samanta on why India should worry about North Korea's possible nuclear test.

Giggles

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Abhieshek Dey on why popular biryani joints in Mewat, Haryana, have shut shop this Eid:

Media reports suggest that the raids started after the police received complaints that biryani containing beef (cow meat), was being sold in Mewat in the run up to Bakr-Eid.

The issue was actively taken up by the Haryana Gau Seva Ayog, or Cow Commission, which is entrusted with implementing cow slaughter laws in the state. It is led by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Bhani Ram Mangla, and its members have often defended the actions of cow protection vigilante groups in the state.

A special drive was launched in August during which samples from food stalls along the highway were picked up and sent for testing to check if beef was being sold. The drive was monitored by the Cow Protection Task Force of the Haryana Police. A Hindustan Times report said that seven samples collected from Firozepur Jhirka “tested positive” for beef.