Bengaluru: B S Yeddyurappa, president of BJP Karnataka unit on Friday blamed the conspicuous silence senior counsel Fali S Nariman before the Supreme Court was the reason for the defeat of Karnataka in Cauvery water dispute.
Blaming Nariman for not arguing effectively, Yeddyurappa said the issue of constituting Cauvery Water Management Board is before another bench of the Supreme Court. “At least this issue ought to have been brought before the present bench of the Supreme Court. It is deplorable and unexplainable that Karnataka lawyers started failed to take up this issue. They ought to have pointed out this flaw. The conduct of lawyers is shocking and disappointing,’’ Yeddyurappa said.

He said that he along with Union Ministers Ananth Kumar and D V Sadananda Gowda, MP Shobha Karandlaje and the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar met Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti and explained about the precarious condition of the water availability in Karnataka. “We appealed to her to send a team of experts to study the prevailing situation. Uma Bharti put our request forward to Tamil Nadu but it had rejected the proposal. The efforts of Uma Bharti to make both the states to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution also did not yield the desired results due to adamant attitude of Tamil Nadu,’’ he said.

He said that BJP has been demanding the state government to seek the change of the Supreme Court bench and this was reiterated before the government during the all-party meeting convened on September 28 but the government did not heed to our advice. “This is also one of the reasons for the state to suffer defeat.  Nevertheless, the BJP reiterates that it will continue to support the government as long as it is committed to protect the interests of farmers and people who dependent on Cauvery for irrigation as well as drinking purpose. The BJP leaders will attend the all-party meeting convened by the chief minister on Saturday,’’ he said.