BJP in a tight spot as Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute escalates, Fadnavis calls Bommai

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Tensions have increased as a result of political posturing by the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka over a border dispute. On Tuesday, vehicles with Maharashtra license plates were targeted in the neighboring state of Belagavi, and Karnataka buses were vandalised in Pune.

This occurred as the tension between the two states over the nearly seven-decade-old border dispute involving Maharashtra’s claims over the 800 or so Marathi-speaking villages in Belagavi and surrounding areas in Karnataka was simmering.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is at the helm in Karnataka and is part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra, finds itself on a sticky wicket with the border row flaring up.

The political finger-pointing began in earnest when two Maharashtra ministers cancelled their plan to visit Belagavi Tuesday following the Karnataka government’s vehement objections to it. The ministers claimed they had “rescheduled” their visit because they did not wish for any untoward incident to take place on Mahaparinirvan Diwas, the death anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar.

However, opposition parties in Maharashtra immediately pounced on the opportunity to corner the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena-BJP government for not adequately protecting the state’s interests.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar warned Tuesday that he would visit Belagavi if the situation was not brought to normalcy within 24 hours.

In Mumbai, Pawar said that Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis informed him that he had spoken to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai about the violence, but “nothing had changed” even after this .

“If the situation is not brought to normalcy within 24 hours, then I along with other leaders will have to personally go to Belgaum (another name for Belagavi) to support people there.”

“Whatever is happening since the last few weeks, it was expected that both CMs of Maharashtra and Karnataka should have taken initiatives to restore normalcy but it has not been done and instead a different turn has been given to this situation,” Pawar added.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar also lashed out at the Maharashtra government for its “failure” Tuesday.

“To conceal their failure, they are giving frivolous excuses. December 6 is Mahaparinirvan Diwas and it has always been so. Did they not know this when they planned their visit for 6 December? They should now give us the next date of the visit if they are claiming to have postponed it.”

He added: “Today, the CM of another state, who belongs to the same party, is giving ultimatums to Maharashtra ministers to not come and visit his state. And Maharashtra is listening to him.”

On Monday, leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi parties— the NCP, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and Congress —  held a joint meeting and decided to hold a 17 December protest rally in Mumbai against the state government.

“Maharashtra is being insulted constantly. And for the first time, we are saying seeds of separatism are being sowed in the state,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray Monday.

“Some villages say they want to go to Karnataka, some say Telangana, some Gujarat. There is a strategy to break Maharashtra. Karnataka is trying to claim a lot of cities in Maharashtra. The question now is whether Maharashtra even has a government. When will Maharashtra show it has a Chief Minister?” he asked.

The border dispute dates to the 1950s, when states were reorganised on linguistic lines. In this exercise, Belagavi and other parts of the erstwhile Bombay presidency were made part of Mysore state (renamed to Karnataka in 1973) but Maharashtra had challenged this decision with the claim that these regions had a sizeable Marathi-speaking population. In 2004, Maharashtra moved the Supreme Court to resolve the dispute.