Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday, 25 July sharply criticised Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's planned visit to Karnataka for direct talks on the long-standing Cauvery water dispute, calling it a 'misguided decision' and demanding it be called off immediately. Stalin insisted that before any bilateral engagement, the Chief Minister must first convene an all-party meeting and consult farmers' organisations.

Stalin's Core Objection

The DMK leader argued that Tamil Nadu's rights over the Cauvery have already been conclusively established through the judicial process, and that reopening the matter through direct bilateral discussions risks undermining the State's legal standing. He maintained that Karnataka's continued failure to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu amounted to contempt of the Supreme Court's final verdict on the issue.

Stalin also reiterated the DMK's long-held position that Karnataka's proposed Mekedatu balancing reservoir project itself constitutes a violation of the Supreme Court's judgment — a charge Karnataka disputes — and that pursuing informal negotiations would only lend the project unwarranted legitimacy.

Political Contradictions Flagged

In a pointed observation, Stalin questioned the optics of the proposed visit, noting that the Indian National Congress (Congress) — which governs Karnataka — is also a coalition partner of the ruling dispensation in Tamil Nadu. He alleged that the visit was effectively an 'eyewash' that would allow the State government to claim diplomatic effort without delivering any concrete benefit to Tamil Nadu or its farmers.

'The exercise,' he argued, would only serve Karnataka's objective of diluting Tamil Nadu's established rights over Cauvery waters, accusing the Tamil Nadu government of walking into what he described as 'Karnataka's trap.'

Farmers' Concerns at the Centre

Stalin stressed that farmers in the Cauvery delta — the region most directly dependent on the river's flows — were deeply dissatisfied with the decision to pursue direct talks. He called their concerns non-negotiable and said no initiative on the Cauvery dispute should proceed without their explicit representation through an all-party consultative process.

DMK's Historical Stance

Recalling his own tenure as Chief Minister, Stalin said the previous DMK government had consistently refused bilateral negotiations with Karnataka, on the grounds that repeated rounds of direct talks had yielded no results because Karnataka had not honoured its commitments. He reaffirmed that position, arguing there was no basis to expect a different outcome now. This comes amid a broader pattern of inter-state river water disputes in peninsular India where judicial verdicts have frequently failed to translate into compliance on the ground.

With the Cauvery dispute entering another politically charged phase ahead of the farming season, the pressure on Chief Minister Vijay to either proceed with or abandon the Karnataka visit is set to intensify in the coming days.