Stalin taken into custody, Oppn plans Thursday shutdown

CHENNAI: DMK working president MK Stalin was taken into custody on Sunday while protesting against the Union government for not setting up the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

Led by Stalin, leaders of the Congress and the VCK held a demonstration at Valluvar Kottam here.

“Our protest will continue till the Cauvery Management Board is constituted. On behalf of all (friendly) parties, we have planned to continue with our protest,” Stalin said, adding that he would reveal the venue and date of the protests on a later date.

Besides Stalin, Congress leader S Thirunavukkarasar and members of the Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK), including party chief T Velmurugan, were also taken into custody.

Condemning the Modi government and the dispensation in the state for “betraying” Tamil Nadu on the Cauvery issue, major opposition parties decided to hold a statewide shutdown protest on April 5.

During a meeting of the parties at the DMK headquarters here it was also decided that a ‘Securing Cauvery Rights March’ would be organised from the Cauvery Delta region in the state to Raj Bhavan here.

Leaders of all political parties and people from other walks of life will participate in the march.

According to the statement, black flags will be shown to Prime Minister Narendra Modi whenever he comes to Tamil Nadu for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

The meeting also condemned the Tamil Nadu government for being an “inseparable partner” of the Centre in the latter’s act of taking away the state’s rights.

The Centre has failed to set up the Cauvery Management Board within six weeks of the Supreme Court’s order of February 16.

The deadline ended on March 29.

Tamil Nadu’s political leaders say the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is acting in favour of Karnataka, which is opposed to the CMB and where assembly elections are due. CHENNAI: In what appears to be a bid to shift the political onus on the DMK on the Cauvery issue, senior AIADMK leader M Thambidurai on Sunday said his party would consider moving a no-trust motion in Parliament against the NDA government if the Congress supported it.

“Stalin says AIADMK should bring a no-trust motion (on Cauvery). We are ready to bring it,” he told reporters at the airport.

In the same breath, the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker said Congress support was needed to facilitate such an initiative.

“Let Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi issue a statement (indicating support), they (DMK) are in alliance with them (Congress)... only if they (Congress) support, we will get (requisite) numbers,” he said.

Seeking to make his party’s position clear,thambidurai, a senior AIADMK leader from Western Tamil Nadu, said such a no-trust move would however be only for the Cauvery issue. “Only on the Cauvery issue... not for any other general issue.