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Cauvery row: Deve Gowda calls off hunger strike on first day
Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda on Saturday began an “indefinite” hunger strike, seeking “justice” for Karnataka in the ongoing row with Tamil Nadu over release of Cauvery water.
Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda ended his “indefinite” hunger strike late Saturday which he had begun in the morning seeking “justice” for Karnataka in the ongoing row with Tamil Nadu over release of Cauvery water.
The 83-year-old Janata Dal (Secular) supremo sat on a fast near the Mahatma Gandhi statue next to Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat in Bengaluru.
Gowda took to the strike after the Supreme Court on Friday ordered Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water till October 6 to Tamil Nadu and the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Water Management Board.
“We want justice. Drinking water is essential for humans to survive,” Gowda, a former chief minister, told reporters, as he launched the hunger strike.
Gowda. who had resolved to continue his protest till Karnataka gets justice from the Union government, broke the same at the end of day one after attending an all-party meet called by chief minister Siddaramaiah later in the day.
The meeting in Bengaluru was called to chalk out the next course of action in the light of the apex court order, which came as a huge setback to the state. Before taking to the strike, Gowda had said he still has “confidence” in the Prime Minister that the issue will be resolved.
He was pursuaded by CM Siddaramaiah, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, and Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar, both senior BJP leaders from the state and ministers at the Centre to give up his hunger strike, according to ANI.
State home minister G Parameshwara, who visited Gowda, said the former Prime Minister had always fought for the state’s interests and added, “I hope it (the hunger strike) will open the eyes of the judiciary.”
He said the attorney general agreeing in the Supreme Court to the formation of the Cauvery Water Management Board also showed that “it (Union government) is also against us”.
The apex court had rapped Karnataka for its repeated “defiance” of flouting the orders and asked the state to release 6,000 cusecs water from Sunday till October 6 to Tamil Nadu, warning “no one would know when the wrath of the law” would fall on it.
A bench of justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit had also directed the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Water Management Board by October 4.
Siddaramaiah was also expected to hold a council of ministers meeting after the all-party meet.
