Protests began this week in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru against the allocation of water from the Cauvery river, with demonstrators opposing a court order to release 5,000 cusecs of river water to Tamil Nadu for 15 days this month. A cusec is one cubic foot or 28 cubic litres per second.

Fear of unrest had forced thousands of employees of multinationals such as Walmart (WMT.N) and Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) to work from home in the technology hub Bengaluru on Sept. 26, a situation expected to be repeated on Friday.

Police appealed for calm as thousands of farmers and members of trade union members were expected to hold rallies and demand complete control over the Cauvery river at a time when the Karnataka government has declared a drought in some parts of the state.

The Tamil Nadu government says the river is a shared resource and it cannot be deprived of its share.

The Cauvery river originates in the Karnataka region of Talakaveri and flows through Tamil Nadu before entering the Bay of Bengal.

Farmers based in both states told Reuters they will not be able to harvest crops if they don’t get an adequate water supply as rainfall has been patchy this year.

Agrarian experts said public anger and litigation over water allotment can be avoided with fixed distress-sharing norms and a fresh audit of the natural resource.

The law prohibiting forced, false, or enticing conversion to another religion was implemented in Karnataka by an ordinance or executive order in May of last year and has since been adopted by numerous BJP-ruled states. Later, in September, a bill to replace it was presented in the state assembly.

The law turned into a subject of contention between the BJP and the Congress It was claimed by the opposition party that it was a weapon for harassing minorities.

“Our law has the power to prevent forced conversion that is motivated by rewards and threats. So why is a new legislation necessary? The only motivation, according to Mr. Siddaramaiah, is to harass and threaten minorities.

Even in court, Christian organisations contended that the new law infringed the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

The chapters on VD Savarkar and KB Hedgewar, one of the founders of the BJP’s ideological forebear Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have been decided to be removed from school history books, according to Mr. Patil. Last year, the chapters were added.