Politicians thrive on controversies. Senior BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa, who was in the Chief Minister's chair for just a week, appeared desperate to work up an emotive election-eve campaign when, on March 16, he along with a handful of supporters crossed over to Tamil Nadu in a coracle and demanded the dropping of the Hogenakkal drinking water supply project. In the war of words that followed, the Rs.1,334-crore project meant to supply 160 million litres a day to th e drinking water-starved districts of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri turned into an ill-tempered inter-State dispute. The key fact is that the two States reached an agreement in 1998 that they would not oppose each other's drinking water schemes. The reasoning was that as long as each State was utilising water only from its share of the Cauvery water as determined by the tribunal in its interim award, the other could have no cause for complaint. Tamil Nadu withdrew its objections to the diversion of Cauvery water for the Bangalore drinking water supply scheme on the understanding that Karnataka would not oppose the Hogenakkal drinking water project. The central government subsequently cleared the Hogenakkal project to everybody's satisfaction. But all this is now being obscured in a steady escalation of tit-for-tat chauvinism. With a long history of water disputes, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are especially vulnerable to acts of violence by chauvinistic groups. Cinemas screening Tamil films were first targeted by Kannada fanatics. By way of reaction, some fringe Tamil political elements attacked two establishments run by Kannadigas in Chennai. With some Kannada organisations declaring that Tamil programmes would not be allowed to be aired on television, cable operators in Tamil Nadu decided to black out Kannada programmes. While calls for boycott or blackout need to be dealt with at the political level, the use of coercion and intimidation to shut down cinemas and shops must be treated strictly as a law and order matter. Predictably, national political parties are divided along regional lines over the issue. Mr. Yeddyurappa did not find any support from the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP. Likewise, the Congress in Karnataka took a stand different from that of its Tamil Nadu unit. With the Assembly elections announced for May 10, 16, and 22, the political parties in Karnataka must resist the temptation to work up emotive sentiments further on Hogenakkal. They should focus positively on what they have to offer the people. Political parties in Tamil Nadu must also respond constructively so that tempers raised by the settled question of Hogenakkal can be cooled down.