Biocon’s Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw tried to call a truce after her recent tweet, which termed Bengaluru as ‘Bandhaluru’ because of repeated bandhs witnessed in the city, drew sharp criticism.

In a nearly 1,000-word blog, Mazumdar-Shaw wrote that she is a proud Kannadiga but was hurt by the outrage expressed against her innocuous tweet. “My tweet has been distorted and misinterpreted and used to hurl abuse and shame me, which is most unfair. I am shocked to see such negative vile being hurled at me from different quarters,” she wrote.

Her September 8 tweet said, “Yes, we shd rename our city as Bandhaluru”, in response to another tweet which said: “Bangalore--where holidays never cease.” She deleted her tweet after it was roundly criticised in the social media.

Mazumdar-Shaw, one of the most decorated businesswomen in the country, said in her blog she has worked tirelessly to create several thousand jobs, investing her personal time, energy and funds for the welfare of the people of Karnataka. “…I am aware of the hardships faced by them (farmers) due to acute water shortage and believe Karnataka’s needs from Cauvery water must be addressed first.”

Unjust demands

Terming the Tamil Nadu government’s demand for more water to be released — for the State’s summer commercial crop — as unfair, Mazumdar Shaw said because of the unjust demands being made on Karnataka, “the protest and agitation by the farmers is well placed, however, the manner in which this is being done is not appropriate...two wrongs don’t make one right.”

She seems to have done some quick calculation about the amount of water required by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. According to her, Karnataka requires 81 TMC ft of water. However, the total water currently available in all the three dams (in Karnataka) is only 56 TMC, out of which 22 TMC water is a dead water (below the dam gates).

This indicates that Karnataka has a scarcity of 47 TMC of water currently to cater to its regular needs, while Tamil Nadu has been constantly demanding the additional share of the water to sustain its additional agricultural activity, she pointed out.

She felt that the long-standing dispute needs to be settled through “non-emotional, evidence-based amicable discussions between the two State governments.”

Popular Kannada actor and Congress leader Ramya, too, landed in controversy over her tweet on the Cauvery issue. “My support for the farmers goes beyond protesting on the streets. It’s an ongoing long term solution,” she tweeted when asked why she was not protesting. “But when election comes you go to Streets,” she was asked.

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