Cauvery not an insurmountable problem, says Kamal Haasan, blames politics for lack of solution

If politics will just stand aside, logic will come in place, logistics will come in place, then we can quickly solve the Cauvery problem, Kamal Haasan says.

Makkal Needhi Maiam founder and actor Kamal Haasan on Wednesday said the Cauvery dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka was not an “insurmountable problem,” and that politics was impeding a solution.

Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan speaks as FICCI president Rashesh Shah (L) looks on, at the Special Session of FICCI’s National Executive Committee Meeting' in Chennai on Wednesday. (PTI photo)

“It is not such an insurmountable problem. If politics will just stand aside, logic will come in place, logistics will come in place, then we can quickly solve the problem,” the veteran actor said.

He claimed that if the issue was “left to actual users,” like farmers, a solution could emerge.

“It is seems like people are driving it (the issue), they are not. It can be solved, but it has to be left to actual users,” he said at a special session of industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s National Executive Committee Meeting.

“Politics is meddling with it. Too many cooks are spoiling the river but what we can do best in such situation is conserve water,” he said.

The actor-politician called for conserving water and cited the case of the highly polluted Cooum river in Chennai to drive home his point.

Haasan, however, said that “we will have to fight for our rights and we will,” on the Cauvery dispute.

The Supreme Court had on February 16 asked the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its judgement on the decades-old Cauvery dispute.

Tamil Nadu later filed a contempt petition against the Centre for not working out the scheme, even as the top court,while rapping the Union government for “sheer contempt,” asked the water resources ministry secretary to appear before it on May 14 with the draft Cauvery management scheme.

Later, political commentator and editor of Tamil magazine ‘Thuglaq’, S Gurumurthy, addressing the audience at the FICCI meeting, backed the NDA government’s demonetisation but described the GST rollout as “a very harsh step.”

“Demonestisation was needed for handling an economy that was mishandled for ten years,” he said.

However, GST was a “very harsh step” as “this one step formalisation of economy is bound to result in various complications which we have seen,” Gurumurthy, a Chartered Accountant by qualification, said.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)