Guru, While politics can never be ruled out, one should also consider the fact that the final judgement was so close to the interim judgement leads me to believe that this is fundamentally a techinical/legal decision. And even though people seem to think that this judgement went for TN, I would like to point out that TN's share is in fact lower than what it was under the old colonial agreement. Karnataka's share almost doubled. The trouble is not the award, but the expectation. Clearly Karnataka considers everything about the old agreement completely unfair and feels that it has the right to use every drop of water that falls on its state. While there is some legal basis for this argument, there is definitely no humanitarian basis for this argument. Turning TN into a desert (Cauvery is the only major river in the state) would be devastating not only for TN, but also for KA and the rest of India. If we can agree that some water needs to be released by KA, then it only becomes a question of numbers. Should it be 192 Tmcft or should it be lower? I hope the CMs can meet and work this out instead of playing politics. It is time India grew up.
