IPL & Water

You all will recall that 2 years back  Maharashtra had a big water scarcity, and the politicians  from all the parties, to score the brownie points, ensure that IPL matches would not be played in any city of Maharashtra, and at that time there were 3 cities in Maharashtra namely Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur were scheduled to host IPL matches. In the end matter went to High Court , where IPL lost the case and in the end politicians had their way. At that time politicians showed such a grim picture of water situation every where in Maharashtra, although the 3 cities which were hosting these matches did not have that serious water problem.

Now this year also the same story is being repeated but in Tamilnadu. The main cause is Cauvery river water dispute between Tamilnadu and Karnataka and this time also IPL may be made scapegoat. So politics over Cauvery water took a predictable but rather disturbing turn, and this might have happen due to entry of Kamal Hasan and Rajanikanth into political arena. Even new entrant into politics know that  IPL can be made a pawn in the inter state water dispute. Both of them have been at the receiving end of bans during their acting career, the duo are expert in identifying that IPL is a most vulnerable scapegoat  to serve their political means. IPL is the most popular T20 league in the Cricketing world and millions of people enjoy this game on the TV and thousands enjoyed in the stadium, on the day of match.

The interstate Cauvery water distribution problem is decades old, and affected states are Tamilnadu & Karnataka. Recently Supreme Court (SC) gave a order on this matter, and Central Govt sought three  months to implement this order, to set up a scheme under the Inter- State River Disputes act, claiming that the any announcement before that may mar Karnataka elections in May 2018. But buying that time from SC  does not cause the problem from disappearing, as soon there will be Parliament Elections. As Karnataka has been allocated more share of water by SC, it is opposed to Tamilnadu’s demand for creating Cauvery management Board to  manage and supervise the regular water release.

As the new entrant to Politics, it raises questions on Rajnikanth and Kamal Hasan’s promise of change, but by behaving similar to DMK and AIADMK, both of them might become clones of these political parties. As both these parties have disrupted parliament for 3 weeks on Cauvery issue. So what do these new entrant to politics think, that holding IPL hostage is the only way for those without parliamentary representations to agitate on the issue of Cauvery water.Now if you think, these two super creative artists of Tamil Cinema, with many business interests in their name, are backing the ban culture, it is only because of linking Cauvery issue  with IPL can become populist sophistry that requires little political intelligence. At a superficial level, this may  become an emotive issue even though it is disruptive and non productive solution. But these stalwarts have  forgotten that such calls my have emotive appeal for some but this will not solve problem or take you some where even near to solving problem.

I do not understand why Politician always choose an issue for agitation without doing any research on the subject. Have they check how much quantity of water is needed for watering the grounds during IPL matches. Even during non playing days also, all these world class cricket stadium needs water for watering the ground, will they ban that also. What about other sports like Lawn Tennis, Foot Ball, Golf etc where the playing field daily needs watering, are they going to ban them also. And for Politicians information, all these playing fields never use potable water  for watering the grounds, generally they use bore well water, tanker water or treated water from Effluent or Sewage Treatment Plants.

The IPL is a super rich tournament, and even for holding some matches they have to bring water from other states by tanker, for watering the ground, the cost for the same will be peanuts for the IPL franchise holder, they can very well afford to spend few lakh etc per match. But generally no business group likes to be in a bad books of ruling or opposition party in the state, hence they do not try to confront. In the end cricket loving fans only will suffer. This year there are 7 IPL matches in Chennai, and the first one is being held tonight.

Let us wait and watch, what is going to happen to this year’s IPL schedule.

Waiting for your feed backs/views/comments.