Maharashtra – Karnataka Border Row Turns Violent, Political Leaders Sought Centre’s Intervention

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Dec 6: The border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka took a violence turn on Tuesday as the vehicles bearing Maharashtra numbers were stoned and smeared with ink in Belagavi forcing the political leaders in Maharashtra to seek centre’s immediate intervention.

An Angry Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called up his BJP party leader and Karnataka chief minister Basavraj Bommai and expressed his strong displeasure over the incidents at Hirebagwadi near Belagavi. Bommai reportedly assured Fadnavis that strict action would be taken against the culprits after looking into these incidents. He also assured in a telephonic conversation with Fadnavis that the vehicles coming from Maharashtra will be protected.

However, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation has decided that the state corporation buses would not go to Karnataka from Maharashtra. MSRTC which runs bus services in state has decided to not run bus services between Maharashtra and Karnataka till the situation normalised, official sources said.

The trouble erupted in Belagavi during a protest demonstration by an organisation called Karnataka Rakshana Vedike turned violent amid the festering — and lately escalating — inter-state border row. Belagavi is at the centre of the territorial dispute as Maharashtra has been claiming that this Marathi-majority area was wrongly given to Kannada-majority Karnataka in the language-based reorganisation of states in the 1960s.

Karnataka recently renewed its claim over some villages in Maharashtra, igniting a fresh round of acrimony even as both states have the same party, the BJP, in power.

At the protest on Tuesday, windshield of at least one truck was damaged as scores of protesters carrying the traditional Kannada/Karnataka flag blocked traffic. Police were deployed to calm the situation, but the protesters were seen jostling with cops and laying down on the road.

This came hours after another big sign of the escalation: Two Maharashtra ministers, Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai, postponed their scheduled visit to Belagavi. But Desai said the visit had “only been postponed” and not cancelled as “we don’t want to create any issues” on BR Ambedakar’s death anniversary.

On Monday, Bommai had said the visit could lead to a law and order problem. Maharashtra has appointed Mr Patil and Mr Desai as coordinating ministers as the row is also in the Supreme Court again.

Belagavi saw another case of violence over the border row around a week ago, at a college fest, when a student waving the Kannada flag was assaulted by some Marathi students. Teachers and other staff members of the host college at Tilakwadi in Belagavi intervened to stop the fight, and police later started an inquiry.

Seeking centre’s intervention, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said, “If Karnataka CM is going to make provocative statements, then Centre must intervene.” He also said he would request MPs from Maharashtra to take a delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, since the winter session of Parliament is beginning on Wednesday.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Udayanraje Bhosale said “The Centre should intervene. It should call all political parties leaders from Maharashtra and Karnataka. The issue should be discussed to find amicable solution on long pending boundary dispute.” “Today, just making statements and counter statements by Maharashtra and Karnataka leaders is not going to solve the vexed problem,” he added. “It has to be addressed by taking all leaders into confidence. Dialogue is must. Otherwise this fight will continue, and nobody will benefit.”

NCP leader Ajit Pawar in a statement said, “Maharashtra will not tolerate high handedness of Karnataka” while his party colleague Chhagan Bhujbal said, “Maharashtra should reassert its rights over border villages. The state cannot buckle under Karnataka.”

The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) activists have taken aggressive stand in Kolhapur. They have taken to streets in large numbers to voice their protest against attack on Maharashtra vehicles in Karnataka. In Pune, Shiv Sena (UBT) workers defaced Karnataka buses. They threw ink and blackened the name plates. The Sena workers wrote Jai Maharashtra on these buses.

Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti led a delegation to district administration at Belagavi to submit a petition, but were driven away by the Karnataka police.