Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 13: The Congress padyatra on “Our water, Our Right” in Karnataka for quick implementation of the Mekedatu water supply project came to a “temporary halt” at Ramanagaram on Thursday in view of the surging Covid cases.
The decision to halt the 10-day long padyatra on the fifth day was taken at a meeting of the senior party leaders and at the advice of the party high command which felt that the party was getting more adverse publicity by continuing the march defying Covid and state government imposed weekend curfew.
The padyatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru seeking early implementation of the Mekedatu drinking water project was launched on January 9 despite the surging Covid cases in the state. But the party finally decided to halt it in the light of the Karnataka High Court’s observations. The party said it would “resume” the padyatra from the same place and on the same route once the Covid pandemic was brought under control.
The decision was taken after several rounds of consultations among senior Congress leaders, including Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar and senior leader B.K. Hariprasad, at Ramanagaram.
Announcing the decision, Siddaramaiah said the Congress was a “responsible party, and that public health was most important. Stating that Congress is not responsible for the surge in COVID=19 cases, he said the situation in Karnataka is a reflection of the third wave being reported across the world. He said that the padyatra will resume from the same place and culminate in the same place, as decided earlier. “We will restart the padyatra once the situation improves.”
Earlier, AICC leader Rahul Gandhi spoke to Shivakumar and is believed to have advised taking a decision considering the public optics about the padyatra. The high command, sources said, had asked the local leaders to stop the padyatra that is threatening to give negative publicity to the party in Karnataka in the midst of a spike in COVID-19 cases, and ahead of elections to five crucial States. Some local leaders suggested a truncated padyatra with only a few leaders walking to Bengaluru to prevent crowding and adherence to Covid-19 norms.
While Congress leaders were huddled in the District Congress Committee office in Ramanagaram, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai wrote to Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar appealing to withdraw the protest. “I am ready to work on implementation of Mekedatu with everyone’s cooperation. It is not right to continue the padyatra in public interest in the light of a surge in COVID-19 cases. We will together work on Mekedatu project in the coming days after facing the COVID-19 pandemic.” He also drew their attention to the observations of the High Court.
The decision also followed the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha M. Mallikarjuna Kharge contacting Covid. Kharge through a tweet disclosed that he had tested positive joining a list of Congress leaders, who had participated in the padyatra, turning positive. Veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily and former Minister H.M. Revanna are among those who were infected by COVID-19.
The state government had also received a rap from the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday and accordingly issued an additional order banning the ‘Our water Our right’ rally that had commenced at Sanagama in Kanakapura taluk in Ramanagaram district on January 9. It had banned inter-district (within Karnataka) and intra-district (within Ramanagaram) movement of vehicles and people to participate in the padyatra.
Till January 9, the government had been seen as going slow on taking action against the padyatra fearing negative publicity. In the first three days of the padyatra, the government had filed three FIRs under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act for violating COVID-19 norms.
Following the High Court’s observations and armed with a fresh government order, Inspector General of Police Lokesh and Ramanagaram Superintendent of Police S. Girish intervened to persuade the Congress leaders to withdraw the padyatra when they gathered at the Congress office in Ramanagaram on Thursday morning. A huge crowd had gathered in front of the Congress office to participate in the padyatra . The police had set up barricades across Ramanagaram district to prevent people from gathering to greet the padyatra.
The Karnataka High Court is set to resume its hearing on the PIL on January 14 where Congress could face serious embarrassment if it had continued with the padyatra.
Earlier on Thursday, the Congress workers who were supposed to participate in the rally with their bullock carts, had been stalled by the police and district administration at various entry points to the district. The 11-day padyatra, which had completed four days on January 12 night, was expected to culminate at Basavanagudi in Bengaluru on January 19, after covering about 170 km across 15 Assembly constituencies.
