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Ambareesh quits Lok Sabha in protest
'Sandalwood' angry-young-man, grandson of the legendary violinist Chowdiah, Mandya MP and Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, MH Ambareesh resigned from his Lok Sabha seat, in protest over the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's ruling last week.
He made it clear that power didn't interest him and that he wanted to do his bit to benefit the Kaveri basin farmers of Karnataka.
I hope he lives upto his words and doesn't seek re-election, when a by-election will be announced. I've said it earlier, and I'll say it again. When legislators resign their seats in protest, while switching parties, to score brownie points, or on technicalities, the state must not bear the expenses of the by-election in case they put themselves up as candidates.
In fact, I'm of the opinion that in such situations, those who've resigned must not be allowed to contest any election until the tenure of the legislature completes.
We saw Sonia Gandhi, Chandrasekhar Rao and Siddaramiah do this in the recent past. Now, Navjot Singh Sidhu, is contesting the by-election for the Amritsar constituency. He was convicted by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in December for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, but obtained a Supreme Court stay on the conviction.
Labels: cauvery, elections, karnataka, kaveri, lok sabha, resignation, water
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Water - the flavour of the fortnight
First, it was Canada's nominee to the Oscars, Deepa Mehta's movie 'Water', finding itself in the final shortlist in the 'Foreign Language Film' category.
Then, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had their usual tussle over the Kaveri/Cauvery. This time it was after the tribunal announced its decision. This resulted in most folks rushing back home early last Monday, a bandh yesterday and a total blackout of Tamil channels from cable television.
Here're a few questions for the morons who're responsible for this blackout, as well as others who support their stand:
- Do you seriously think an act of not allowing Tamil channels to be beamed to homes having cable TV is likely to get those sections of the Tamil populace who're still siding with Tamil Nadu, over to your side? I've been pissed off far too many times with this militant brand of Kannada chauvinism. I've reached the end of my patience. You've now officially lost any sort or empathy I'd have ever had.
- Are you protesting against the tribunal's decision? Last I checked, there were no Tamilians in the tribunal.
- Have you considered the fact that the politicians know that a review of the decision can be sought. Why do you need to cause hardship to the population at large if a review application is on the cards anyway?
- The bandh is over. You've had your bloody say and way. Can we have the channels back please? How long is this going to continue? Until you chaps have gone through the 1000-page order and then decided on which parts of Karnataka each of you is going to own for causing chaos?
- I'm unaware of the number of Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu. I suspect the number will be far less than the number of Tamilians living in Karnataka. Yet, had the judgement gone the other way, consider the reality that one of those Kannadigas would have been writing a similar post, not me.
- Would you like it if say a relative of yours, living in Tamil Nadu and unable to comprehend/speak Tamil, was told summarily by a TNEB official to bloody well talk to him in Tamil since he was living in Tamil Nadu?
- Would you like it if that said relative was asked to shut up and bear the absence of Kannada channels since he should sympathize with Tamil Nadu's protests when he was in that state, else he could pack his bags and go? The above questions aren't rhetorical. I've had these put to me by officials at BESCOM and by my cable TV service provider.
The third water related issue that happened was Professor Raymond Lafitte declaring the India-Pakistan slugfest over the Baglihar dam as a draw, as was reported here last November. His decision gives Pakistan the boasting rights while India can move on with the construction of the dam, with a few changes, as Nitin writes. In total contrast to the transparency that it demands of governments, the World Bank as of now, doesn't even have a press release announcing the decision on its website. Purely going by Pakistan's attempts to paint the decision as vindicating its stand, it seems a classical case of the Tamil saying 'Kuppara vizhundhaalum meesaiyila mannu ottalai'. This is literrally translated as "Although I fell flat on my face, mud didn't stick to my face", and is a metaphor for a hopeless attempt at saving face!
Labels: baglihar, blackout, cable tv, cauvery, chauvinism, dispute, india, kannada, karnataka, kaveri, oscars, pakistan, tamil nadu, water
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"No more remakes", swear Tamil and Kannada film makers
The following happened today, triggered by an event around noon.
Offices, shops, schools etc. shut down very early, in the afternoon in fact. There were incidents of stone throwing, tyre burning, dharnas etc. despite the presence of policemen. Tamil channels went off the air on cable television because the cable operators' association was also protesting.
No, these didn't happen because Rajkumar died again or because there was yet another bandh in support of Karnataka's claims over Belgaum.
All that happened following the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's ruling today. The overall perception in Karnataka is that the decision favours Tamil Nadu. There're accusations of Karunanidhi (ab)using his Lok Sabha seats to get the decision in his favour. This obviously indicates that had the Congress (I) administrators in Karnataka done their job in the previous election (In 2004, the Congress (I) won 8 seats in Karnataka while the DMK won 16 from Tamil Nadu in 2004) as well as when HD Kumaraswamy hoodwinked them last year to become CM, the decision on the river waters would have been in Karnataka's favour. I find that line of reasoning hard to accept.
Buses from/to Tamil Nadu were also affected. I'm unsure about the status of trains. I'm not going to take my TN registered (and lifetime Karnataka state tax paid for, by the way) two-wheeler out for a few days because of the thugs terrorists prowling the streets!
In fact, I'm fairly sure that the situation would have been similar in Tamil Nadu had the verdict been different. If anything, Tamil Nadu protests in an even more macabre manner, like ... umm ... by burning a bus with college students in it.
Yet, some good may come out of all this. Sources in the Kannada and Tamil film industries close to me revealed that they were actively considering stopping remakes. It is no secret that a lot of Kannada movies/film songs are heavily inspired blatant remakes of Tamil movies. It is also no secret that most Vijay movies in Tamil are remakes of Mahesh Babu's movies in Telugu.
Hence, film makers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have apparently agreed that Kannada movie makers will cease to remake Tamil movies until the Cauvery dispute is settled. At the same time, since Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have still not sorted out the Krishna river water sharing, Tamil film makers, especially those who cast Vijay, will not do a copy-paste job from Mahesh Babu movies.
It is my wish that this would revive the Kannada film industry and also provoke Vijay into exploring other types of roles as well.
Labels: cauvery, chauvinism, dispute, kannada, karnataka, kaveri, movies, tamil nadu, water
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