Babhali, Nanded:
Visit the Babhali barrage in Maharashtra, and the still waters there reveal none of the storm raging over politicians from two different states.
Andhra Pradesh has challenged the dam in the Supreme Court, arguing that it gives so much water to Maharashtra that it will turn the area downstream, in Andhra's Telangana region, into a desert.
Pradeep Ambedkar , with 32 acres, is a rich farmer by local standards. He knows the court verdict - expected next month - could change his fortune forever. There is no sense of haplessness when he says that the only way he can live with the uncertainty is to fully accept that what will be, will be. ''The Supreme Court decision will come on August 10. When they allowed construction, they will allow operation also.''
Here in this catchment area of the contentious dam, where many like Pradeep have so much to lose, the bluster of politicians and their vitriolic exchanges is kept at a safe distance. They know Chandrababu Naidu has refused bail, that the politician and his colleagues are insistent upon visiting the dam. They believe that farmers have little to do with that decision.
Political self-interest and manipulation irks them. "You are worried, we are also worried. India is one. At least we don't like this way of dividing people,'' says Irba Patil, a resident of Babhali village.
Enough, they say, with the invective being exchange between Naidu and Maharashtrian politicians, who warned Naidu not to cross the border, and arrested him when he did. "Of course we have an objection. It is our state. He should have followed procedures, approached the court,'' says Vithal.
The elections to 12 seats in Telangana are to be held on July 27. Nobody is any doubt over what's motivating Naidu's Babhali fixation. Let it not disrupt the peace, they say. "That much, we're entitled to," adds an old man sitting under a tree.