Top AIADMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today hit back at DMK over the Cauvery issue, saying the main opposition party was the one which enacted dramas and 'betrayed' farmers despite being part of the erstwhile UPA regime at the centre.
Ending his party's day long fast here to condemn the Centre for not setting up Cauvery Management Board (CMB), the Chief Minister made a point by point rebuttal to the charges by DMK working president M K Stalin's earlier in the day.
Stalin had demanded the resignation of Palaniswami and his Cabinet, alleging that the ruling regime enacted dramas and failed to deliver on the Cauvery issue.
Addressing party workers, Palaniswami said the Cauvery issue would have been resolved in 2007 itself had DMK told Congress it would quit the UPA government at the Centre over the issue.
Such a stand would have led to not only the publication of the final award, but also the setting up of the CMB and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee and farmers would have had no trouble, he said.
"DMK, however, betrayed Tamil Nadu and its farmers," he alleged.
Seeking to turn the tables on DMK for asking them to resign and for charging them with not having mounted pressure on the Centre, he said DMK did nothing when it was in power at the Centre as a partner of the Congress-led UPA.
"Now they are asking us to resign. They accuse us of not putting pressure. When Congress was dependent on DMK for its surivival at the Centre, DMK could have ended the Cauvery dispute," he said.
Denying DMK's allegation that his regime did not mount pressure on the Cauvery issue, he said "pressure was given both politically and through the government."
On DMK leader Stalin's charge that his party was staging a drama on the Cauvery issue, he shot back asking "who is staging a drama?"
"You are the hero of drama," he said recalling the lapse of the Cauvery agreement in 1974.
The 1924 pact between the then princely State of Mysore and Madras Presidency ended in 1974 when DMK was in power in Tamil Nadu.
Palaniswami alleged that DMK did not act to get the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes published in the gazette in 2007. Had they done so, there would not have been any need for this hunger strike, he said.
DMK was only interested in power and not on the welfare of farmers and people and hence it did not act, he alleged.
Against the backdrop of DMK criticising AIADMK for choosing to wait till the end of Supreme Court fixed time frame rather than take on the Centre, Palaniswami explained why his government waited.
Following consultations with legal experts,it was decided to wait till the end of the Supreme Court fixed deadline of March 29 before taking further steps as that was the legally tenable option, he said.
With the expiry of the time frame set, a contempt petiion was filed in the Supreme Court and the matter has been listed for April 9.
Also, his government opposed the Centre's plea on Cauvery issue in the top court, which said it would hear the pleas of both Tamil Nadu and the Union government together on April 9, he said.
The top court, hearing Tamil Nadu's plea yesterday, assured that the State would get is due allocation of Cavuery water and "we expect that we will get it," he said.
"We will fight, get justice and win," he said adding that today's fast by 15 lakh party cadres across Tamil Nadu was reflective of the aspirations of the people and farmers on the Cauvery issue.
He also recalled late J Jayalalithaa's efforts in securing the rights of Tamil Nadu on the Cauvery issue.
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