The just-concluded winter session of the Karnataka Legislature in Belagavi was once again forced to take a relook at the long-drawn inter-state border dispute—the Assembly passed a censure motion against the burning down of the Kannada flag at Kolhapur in Maharashtra on December 13, by some miscreants.
The motion sought action against the perpetrators by the Maharashtra government. The incident was just the beginning of another spate of vandalism. While some pro-Kannada groups smeared black paint on erstwhile Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji’s statue in Bengaluru, in retaliation, the statue of revolutionary freedom fighter and Kannada icon Sangolli Rayanna was vandalised in Belagavi’s Anagol village triggering tension in the border district. The district administration was forced to impose prohibitory orders to control the flare ups.
In the eye of the storm is the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), a single-focus agenda political party founded in 1948 to fight for the merger of Belagavi with Maharashtra. This time, too, MES is accused of “vandalism” even as the linguistic party flexes its muscles every time the Karnataka Legislature convenes its winter session in Belagavi.
The pro-Kannada activists have threatened to observe Karnataka bandh on December 31 demanding a ban on MES. The Karnataka Rakshna Vedike led by Praveen Shetty and 38 other organisations including Sandalwood have given the state government a deadline (December 29) to initiate the process of banning the MES. Even as the Assembly was debating on imposing a ban on MES, a Kannada flag hoisted in Halashi Gram Panchayat premises was burned down.
Rayanna (1798-1831), a revolutionary freedom fighter and Kuruba icon was the army chief of the erstwhile Kittur kingdom ruled by Rani Chennamma who fought against the British. Rayanna, who was hanged to death by the British near Nandagad is revered as a revolutionary fighter, much like the Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji is respected for his valour and patriotism. However, the constant friction between the supporters of the two historical icons is due to the local politics. The Congress and the BJP have tried to appropriate historical icons to consolidate the community vote base.
The Kannada groups allege that both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress are reluctant to take a stand on the issue as they don't want to upset the sizeable Marathi votebank by attacking the MES.
A decades-old border dispute has snowballed into a linguistic conflict. The erstwhile Bombay Presidency, a multilingual province, included districts of Vijayapura, Belagavi, Dharwad and Uttara-Kannada, which became part of Karnataka following the reorganisation of states in 1956. In 1948, the Belgaum municipality had requested that the district with predominantly Marathi-speaking population should be merged with Maharashtra. But during the reorganisation, Belgaum (Belagavi) and 10 other talukas of Bombay Presidency were merged with the then Mysore State (renamed Karnataka in 1973).
In September 1957, the Bombay government lodged a protest with the Centre which led to the constitution of the Mahajan Commission (under former Chief Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan) in October 1966. The Commission which submitted its report in August 1967, recommended that 264 villages should be transferred to Maharashtra (formed in 1960) and Belgaum and 247 villages would remain with Karnataka. While Maharashtra rejected the report, Karnataka welcomed it. Maharashtra continues to stake its claim to 814 villages along the border, including Belagavi city. In 2004, the Maharashtra government moved the Supreme Court for a settlement of the border dispute under Article 131(b) of the Constitution. Even as the case is pending before the apex court, in December 2019, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray appointed his ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Eknath Shinde as coordinators to oversee the state’s efforts to expedite the case.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka government built the Suvarna Soudha - a replica of Vidhana Soudha (at a cost of Rs 450 crore) at Belagavi to send a strong message that Belagavi was an integral part of Karnataka and as a gesture to remove the regional regional imbalance. On October 11, 2012, then president Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi and it emerged as the second state capital. The subsequent governments started holding the winter session of the state Legislature in Belagavi. However, the language conflicts between MES and Kannada outfits got triggered during these special sessions as MES started observing Black Day on Kannada Rajyotsava Day (state formation day) and MES started hosting mega conventions (Maha Melava) during the winter session to reassert its demand for the merger of Belagavi with Maharashtra.
This time, the Karnataka Assembly passed a resolution to condemn the action of the MES and also to study the legal basis to ban the organisation.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai assured the House that Karnataka would adhere to the Mahajan Commission report on Belagavi. “The Mahajan Commission report is final in the Belagavi issue. A report will be sent to the Centre against MES. The statues of Sangolli Rayanna and Kittur Rani Chennamma would be installed in Suvarna Soudha to honour the icons, who are pride of Karnataka,” said Bommai, adding that the MES miscreants would be booked under the Goonda Act.
Citing the example of the Jath taluk in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, Bommai said: “This area is drought-prone and has Kannadiga population. At least 40 gram panchayats have passed a resolution seeking to join Karnataka as they have suffered neglect. Our government is ready to provide protection to Kannadigas in Maharashtra and support them if they want their areas to be merged with Karnataka.”
While the leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah condemned the “hooliganism” of the MES activists and demanded they be thrown out of the state, KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar was careful not to antagonise the Marathi-speaking people as all 18 Assembly seats have sizeable Marathi-speaking population.
Former chief minister and JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy alleged the commitment of the national parties to regional interests and Kannada pride is questionable. "They seem to treat Karnataka as a voting vending machine during elections and as a "Akshaya Patre" to fill the Central coffers with the taxes. BJP is mum over the insult to a Kannada icon but hail the Maratha ruler. Why this discrimination and selective patriotism? Congress has to explain its doublespeak. Why are they soft on MES?," asked Kumaraswamy.
