Mumbai/Bengaluru: Even as Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked Maharashtra and Karnataka to show restraint for the time being on the border row, the dispute is unlikely to die down soon, especially with the assembly session beginning Monday in both states.
Given that the winter session of the Karnataka assembly is to be held in Belagavi, a border city on which Maharashtra stakes claim, House proceedings are set to be stormy for the Basavaraj Bommai government.
In Maharashtra, opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, feels that the Modi government can do much more than just advising restraint and forming a ministerial committee.
Apart from instructing the two states to not press their claims till the Supreme Court gives a decision, Shah has called for the formation of a six-member ministerial panel to resolve the decades-long border dispute.
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Stormy winter session likely in Karnataka
Ever since states were reorganised in the 1950s, Maharashtra has had a long-standing demand for 814 villages along its border and Belagavi city — areas in Karnataka that have a large Marathi-speaking population — to be included in its territory. While the dispute is in the apex court, it flared up due to the Maharashtra government’s decisions and comments made by Karnataka CM Bommai.
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde’s contentious decision of extending a pension scheme for freedom fighters to the Marathi-speaking border villages of Karnataka irked the neighbouring state. Similarly, Bommai’s comments about merging parts of Maharashtra such as Sangli’s Jat taluka and Solapur’s Akkalkot taluka with Karnataka drew angry responses.
Moreover, the winter session of the Karnataka assembly takes place at the heart of the dispute, Belagavi. For ten days every year, Belagavi becomes the seat of power as the government machinery relocates to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, which was built with the objective of cementing Karnataka’s hold over the district.
“Looks like the BJP is not in control of its state units which seem to be functioning in silos. But at the same time, the home ministry is caught napping. This is not a stray incident. It seems like the BJP is planning, stoking and then trying to put balm. This has happened in Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya…now, it’s happening in Karnataka and Maharashtra,” said Congress MLA and party’s communications wing chief Priyank Kharge.
The BJP-ruled Karnataka is going to polls next year.
While pro-Kannada outfits will protest outside the assembly Monday, the Congress plans to corner the BJP government inside the House over its meek response over the border row.
The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti has already invited former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, NCP president Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray for its ‘Marathi Mahamelava’ in Belagavi on 19 December.
‘Shinde-Fadnavis doing disservice to Maharashtra’
In Maharashtra, the MVA allies have planned a joint protest march on Saturday in Mumbai to highlight the Shinde-led coalition government’s alleged inability to handle the border row, among other issues.
Opposition leaders said they expected Shah to take a more firm stand and provide some direction to resolving the conflict, considering there is a BJP government in both states as well as at the Centre.
In Nashik, NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal told reporters that he welcomes Shah’s call for maintaining peace, but added the central government should use its position to push for a fast out-of-court settlement.
“One doesn’t know when the case will be heard, when the verdict will be out. But if they (Union ministers) study the issue in depth and are able to come to a solution, they can also figure out a negotiation out of court. They should make efforts in that direction,” he said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Manisha Kayande said the decisions that came out in Wednesday’s meeting of Shah and the two CMs were “time-buying tactics”.
“Eventually this matter is in the Supreme Court, and the Centre should try to expedite the hearing like it did in the case of the Ram Mandir. Amit Shah should have given such a commitment,” she said. “Shah should have been firm with Mr Bommai because he made comments claiming parts of Maharashtra. The Opposition is going to strongly take up this issue during the winter session.”
Congress leader Sachin Sawant blamed the BJP for “the mess”.
“In all the three parts connected with the dispute — Maharashtra, Karnataka and at the Centre — there is a BJP government. Bommai has consistently made inciting statements. So rather than asking for an answer from him, Amit Shah appealed for restraint, which has no meaning,” he told ThePrint.
“If Eknath Shindeji and (Devendra) Fadnavisji are not speaking up against the aggressive approach of Bommai, then it is a disservice to Maharashtra,” he said, adding that the BJP is allowing the issue to fester with an eye on the Karnataka election.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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