Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 9
Amid simmering tensions along the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka over Belagavi, a delegation of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties (Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) led by NCP leader Supriya Sule on Friday called on Home Minister Amit Shah.
During the meeting, the MVA delegation is learnt to have told Shah that the border dispute between the two BJP-ruled states had reached such a stage that it could erupt into full-blown violence. Meanwhile, Shah is expected to meet the two chief ministers next week to resolve the situation arising out of the issue dating back to the implementation of the State Reorganisation Act of 1956.
How row erupted
At the time of Independence, Belagavi (then Belgaum) was a part of the Bombay state which included parts of present-day Maharashtra and Karnataka.
After the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 redrew boundaries of States and UTs along linguistic lines, Maharashtra claimed that hundreds of villages where the dominant language was Marathi were wrongly handed over to the Mysore state where Kannada was the main language.
Mysore was renamed as Karnataka in 1973.
Thanking Shah for giving the delegation a patient hearing, Sule said “the delegation expressed concern about the ongoing Maharashtra – Karnataka border tension and resultant violence in the wake of the statements made by the Chief Minister of Karnataka about Maharashtra and the attacks on the Marathi people on the border areas”.
According to the ground reports, the situation is tense and police personnel have been deployed in large numbers to prevent any untoward incident, according to reports. A heavy police cover continues in Belagavi—the city as well as the district. While a pro-Kannada organisation, Namma Karnataka Sene, staged a protest in Bengaluru on Friday, a pro-Marathi socio-political organisation Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti is planning to invite NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray for the Marathi Mahamelava in Belagavi on December 19.
Uddhav Thackeray has also questioned the “silence” of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde over the issue, accusing the Centre of being a “mute spectator on the sensitive issue”. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also said that Belagavi in Karnataka be declared a Union Territory. The incidents of violence in Belagavi cannot take place without Delhi’s support, he claimed
Notably Sule on Wednesday told the Lok Sabha that the people of Maharashtra are getting “beaten up” every day despite the BJP being in power in both the states, thus leading to protests from Karnataka BJP MPs. “In the past 10 days a conspiracy has been hatched to break Maharashtra,” asking Shah to intervene while slamming Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
Dating back to almost six decades, the issue flared up following remarks by politicians from both states ahead of a Supreme Court hearing.
Parts of the Belagavi district are claimed by Maharashtra on linguistic grounds
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was quoted as saying that “not a single Maharashtra village will go to Karnataka”. “The state government will take the fight to get Marathi-speaking villages including Belgaum-Karwar-Nipani too to our state,” Fadnavis he said in response to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s claims that panchayats in Maharashtra’s Jat tehsil had passed a resolution to merge with Karnataka
Meanwhile Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde appointed two senior ministers to scale up the legal and political fight.
