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When two Chief Ministers took to the beach in protest
In July 1993, the then CM Jayalalithaa went on an indefinite fast on the Marina over the Cauvery water sharing issue. Sixteen years later, the Marina came to host another indefinite fast in April. This time, the incumbent CM, Karunanidhi, was protesting against the civil war in Sri Lanka
Jayalalithaa reading 100 Great Modern Lives during her protest over the Cauvery water sharing issue on the Marina in July 1993.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
Chennai’s contemporary political history has seen many protests, fasts, and demonstrations. Some of them, such as the anti-Hindi agitation (even though which was held across the State), have either changed the political course of the State permanently or left such an impact on people that the events — Jayalalithaa’s fast on the Cauvery in July 1993 and M. Karunanidhi’s fast on the Sri Lankan issue during the last phase of the civil war in April 2009 — and are still remembered and recalled.
On a Sunday in July 1993, the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa took the entire State by surprise by announcing that she was on a fast over the Cauvery issue, which has had Tamil Nadu and Karnataka locking horns for more than 100 years. The period in which Jayalalithaa went on the fast was in the initial years of the phase of the Cauvery dispute, after the June 1991 interim order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT). The Tribunal had mandated Karnataka to ensure that the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu realised 205 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) of water annually (June-May).
During June and July’s first half, Tamil Nadu should have received 31.54 tmc ft, whereas it only got 12.22 tmc ft. It was amid these circumstances that Jayalalithaa began, what she called “an indefinite fast.”
A common misconception
Even though the general purpose of the fast was to secure the State’s share of water for the year, there was a bigger reason — the demand for the constitution of an implementation mechanism for the interim award. Sections of city residents who were not fully aware of her protest, coupled with the fact that Chennai was in the midst of an acute water scarcity then, were genuinely under the impression that Jayalalithaa’s fast was aimed at solving Chennai’s water problem.
Jayalalithaa’s fast site was located between the mausoleums of Annadurai and her political mentor and AIADMK’s founder, M.G. Ramachandran, on the Marina. Clad in a green saree and sitting on a sofa positioned on an elevated platform, the Chief Minister, on the first day (July 18), read 100 Great Modern Lives. She started receiving a stream of high-profile visitors including the then Governor M. Channa Reddy. Effigies of the Karnataka Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily and Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao were burnt in different parts of the State, including near the Ezhilagam complex, Chepauk, and Virugambakkam. Hearing that 50 volunteers had tried to immolate themselves in view of her fast, Jayalalalithaa made an appeal to her party cadre to exercise restraint.
On the fourth day (July 21), Union Minister for Water Resources V.C. Shukla, the Prime Minister’s Man Friday, who went to Bengaluru and held discussions with the Karnataka Chief Minister the previous night, met Jayalalithaa for two sittings. It was left to Jayalalithaa’s immediate deputy in the Cabinet, V.R. Nedunchezhian, who was her Finance Minister, to announce the Centre’s willingness to form two committees — one for the implementation of the award and the other for monitoring the data with reference to the implementation. Wild cheers and the bursting of crackers welcomed his announcement, as Jayalalithaa gave up the fast. Apart from the drama, there was little progress, though. Tamil Nadu had to wait for five more years for an implementation mechanism. By then, the AIADMK’s traditional adversary, the DMK, had come to power.
Protest of 2009
Sixteen years later, the spot on the Marina once again became the spot where the then Chief Minister Karunanidhi observed a fast, which he had also described as indefinite initially. This time, the month was April, and the date was 27, a Monday.
Karunanidhi during his protest against the civil war in Sri Lanka in April 2009.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
The civil war in Sri Lanka, also called the Eelam War, was in its final phase, as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), led by V. Prabhakaran, had been suffering a string of military defeats, including the fall of Kilinochchi in January that year, which was the headquarters of the LTTE-run territory, and that of the strategic Elephant Pass in the north. The rebel group was confined to a small area close to Mullaitivu, which it had captured from the Sri Lankan authorities 13 years earlier. The Sri Lankan authorities had accused the LTTE of using civilians as “human shields.”
On April 24, India’s Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan met Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo. Two days later, the LTTE announced a ceasefire but Colombo rejected it, calling it a joke. There was no word from New Delhi about what was under way.
Besides, in India, the Lok Sabha election was in progress and two phases of polling had been completed, with three more to go. Tamil Nadu was covered in the final and fifth phase (May 13). On April 25, AIADMK’s general secretary Jayalalithaa, the principal rival of Karunanidhi, stated that if the next government at the Centre were to be formed with the help of the AIADMK and if that government were to heed the party’s word, steps would be taken to establish a separate Tamil Eelam.
A surprise announcement
The 85-year-old Karunanidhi had undergone a surgery for his back problem only a couple of months earlier. At 5.55 a.m. on April 27, he told his driver to take him to the party headquarters, Anna Arivalayam. Just as the convoy reached Cathedral Road, he asked him to go to the memorial of Annadurai. Around 6.05 a.m., he commenced his fast and suddenly told his followers and others: “On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I am undertaking this fast to protect the Tamils in Sri Lanka.”
Soon, a number of his well-wishers, religious leaders, officials, political leaders, and Tamil cinema personalities called on him and requested him to give up the fast. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Home Minister P. Chidambaram were among those who urged him to abandon the fast. As news of the fast spread, several functionaries of the DMK and its allies suspended their poll campaign and rushed to the venue of the fast. The ruling DMK sent telegrams to a number of dignitaries, including Mr. Rajapaksa, calling for “a permanent ceasefire.”
Around noon, Colombo announced the end of combat operations with heavy calibre weapons, combat aircraft, and aerial weapons, which could cause civilian casualties. Around 12.20 pm, Mr. Chidambaram informed Karunanidhi of Colombo’s decision to halt combat operations. Satisfied with his conversation with the Union Minister, the DMK chief ended his fast.
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