MADRAS: Numerous Tamils living in Karnataka entered Tamilnadu for safety as Kanada people mounted physical attacks on them in the wake of growing tension between the two south Indian neighboring states over the water issue.
Tamilnadu chief minister Miss J Jayalalitha made frantic telephone calls last week to the Indian government authorities in Delhi seeking urgent intervention including deployment of army in Kamataka to save Tamil people living there.
“It is clear to us that the law and order situation in Karnataka has been worsening and the Tamil people are being singled out for victimization”, Jayalalitha in a statement said here on Sunday.
The Tamil chief minister added that she had earlier contacted her Kamataka counterpart drawing his attention to the need for taking urgent measures to stop violence against innocent Tamil people and to control the law and order situation, She also tried to speak to the Prime Minister but he could not be contacted owing to his pre-engagements with the Chinese Prime Minister.
Jayalalitha said that the Central authorities promised to take up the matter with the Prime Minister to restore normalcy in Kamataka but the events were moving in the opposite direction. Reports of unprovoked attacks on Tamil people, looting of their houses and property, causing grievous injury to them aided and abetted by the local police were pouring in and a large number of Tamils, old, women and children, were moving into Tamilnadu to narrate heart-rending stories of their molestation. “I am afraid the situation will have serious repercussions on Tamilnadu. The chief minister of Karnataka must take serious personal notice of the frenzied attacks on Tamils in his state”, she added.
Earlier, a tribunal going into the water dispute between Tamilnadu and Karnataka issued an interim order somewhat favorable to Tamilnadu. Karnataka hit back by issuing a notification disregarding the tribunals order and asserting Karnatakas right to the river water. Delhi referred the matter to Supreme Court for advice as the Kamataka notification caused a big fur ore in Tamilnadu. The Supreme Court upheld the tribunal’s interim order and squashed the Karnataka notification. The Indian governments gazette the Supreme Court’s opinion to make it law applicable to Kamataka. India at the same time called a conference of chief ministers of south Indian states to thrash out the dispute.
Meanwhile, Venkatasubiah, a former Indian Supreme Court chief justice criticized the Supreme Court opinion as contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and warned that the courts view would put in jeopardy the interests of lower riparian states. But most Indian Supreme Court judges appear to be more condemned about the country’s “unity and integrity” than the rights of the constituent parts of the Indian union, This has led to mass violence against the Supreme Court opinion and its elevation to law by the Indian central authorities.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 20, 1991
