The Opposition has been presented with a great opportunity to corner the ruling BJP after the statement made by Central Home Minister Amit Shah over Mhadei.
A lot depends on how the Opposition parties successfully garner the public support. The Karnataka government has been trying to divert the water of Kalsa, Bhandura and Haltara tributaries for the past several years and have been successful in diverting the water of Kalsa into Malprabha – thanks to the sloping nature of the region.
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The same attempt is underway with Bhandura by filling the basin with stones. The confluence of all these three tributaries is what forms the single channel called Mhadei river which is known by different names in different regions. At last, it pours into the Arabian Sea as Mandovi. The matter is pending in the court and that is the truth and now BJP should answer as to why they came up with the drama of taking the visit of Shah, the very leader who has now made them fall flat on their faces. Of course, one day or the other one had to accept that ‘Centre is with us’ was just a lie made up to tame the people’s aggression. Except the Ministry led by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, other ministries have not really treated Goa well. However, it has become a pattern for BJP-ruled states to look upto the Centre for all the answers. The state leaders seem to have no option other than to just heap praise on the central leaders every now and then in order to safeguard their chairs. The Mhadei issue is recent and one has to look back at what happened with the mining ban. An environmental action group such as Goa Foundation has been demanding the auction of mining blocks for years and even fought legal battles. But the government did not attempt to hurt the mining companies for the reasons best known to them. The state government was under the delusion that the Centre will resolve the mining issue and was spinning yarns to the people.
Sometimes it was told that an affidavit would be presented by the Centre which would compliment the state government’s stance and sometimes the people were told that a high level committee of ministers had been formed by Shah to study the matter. Many meetings were held in Delhi but it is indeed true that nothing really materialised.
At the end, the government had to bow down and this led to auctioning of the mining blocks. It would not have taken three years for mining to resume if the government had listened to the Goa Foundation in the first place. The policy of heavily depending on the Centre for everything caused loss to people, mining owners as well as the State who missed out on the revenue. The same pattern is being repeated now. Leaders rushed to Delhi hoping that Shah would resolve the matter and assured the masses that the Centre is going to look into the matter. But in reality, Shah himself exposed the Goa government during his visit to Karnataka. Although the Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral and WRD Minister Subhash Shirodkar has shown courage to disagree with Shah, there has been no response to Shah’s statements from the government. The government has been constantly saying that Goa’s side is strong in the court and will defeat Karnataka legally, then they should answer the people as why was the tearing hurry to meet Shah? The demand for water tribunal was made during the Congress regime and the Centre promised to appoint the same in the Supreme Court. Once the tribunal is appointed, its judgement has to be adhered and hence, the claim of Karnataka that they are diverting only the water distributed by the tribunal cannot be rejected in the court. The government is still misleading its people by telling them that they will win the battle in the court. The government is still not ready to accept that the Mhadei’s water fizzled out from their hands the day the tribunal’s judgement came. Yes, politically they
cannot afford to say it openly but the secret does not remain hidden for too long. It was also said that Karnataka would be prevented from diverting the water by using wildlife conservation act and wildlife protection act and as per the government, it was declared that Karnataka has been issued the notice regarding the same. All eyes are now on the Supreme Court’s hearing which is scheduled for next month. The BJP tried to handle the issue in its own way but currently it has backfired. However, it does not mean that the opposition will get the benefit by-default. They have a great opportunity to gain leverage over their rivals and a lot depends on how they utilise it.
