Belagavi Border Dispute sparks controversy as Karnataka Minister claims pre-Independence Maharashtra ownership
Belagavi Border Dispute sparks controversy as Karnataka Minister claims pre-Independence Maharashtra ownership
Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calls for the resignation of Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar amidst controversial Belgaum statements.
Karnataka BJP has demanded the resignation of Minister for Women and Child Welfare Laxmi Hebbalkar following her statement that the border district Belagavi belonged to Maharashtra before Independence.
Hebbalkar stated this while attending the Sixth Kannada Convention organized at Karadga Village in Belagavi District on Sunday. While describing the rich history of the Kannada language and Karnataka state, Hebbalkar had stated that Belagavi was part of Maharashtra before Independence and this stirred up a controversy.
Her video in this regard has also gone viral on social media.
Notably, In the last week of November, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde held a meeting to take stock of the border dispute. Shinde deputed two senior ministers to scale up coordination on the issue on the legal front and politically.
A day later, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai raked up the controversy by staking the claim to some 40 villages that fall in Maharashtra.
While Shinde said that freedom fighters in Belagavi and other Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka would be eligible for pension, Bommai declared grants for all Kannada schools in Maharashtra.
“No village in Maharashtra will go to Karnataka! The state government will fight strongly in the Supreme Court to get Marathi-speaking villages including Belgaum-Karwar-Nipani,” Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted.
Uddhav Thackeray, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, hit out at Bommai and called the latter ‘possessed’. Maharashtra Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar also condemned Bommai’s remarks. Pawar sought the Centre’s intervention on the issue. The dispute snowballed into violence as vehicles from both states were attacked and defaced in Belagavi and Pune, respectively considering the simmering row.
The raging dispute has its roots in the State Reorganisation Act, 1956, which aimed at reorganizing the states along linguistic lines. At the time of India’s independence, Belagavi was part of the Bombay state that had included parts of present-day Karnataka. After the implementation of the Act, Belagavi (previously Belgaum) became a part of Karnataka.
The Maharashtra government filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the State Reorganisation Act, 1956 in 2004. It demanded 865 villages and places from five Karnataka districts to be merged with the state. The dispute also gave birth to Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) in Belgaum, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency.
Karnataka contends that only Parliament can decide the state borders and not the Supreme Court. It cites Article 3 of the Indian Constitution while doing so. On the other hand, Maharashtra cites Article 131 and claims the apex court has jurisdiction in cases of disputes in which the Union government and the states are involved.
On December 10, Maharashtra’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Chandrashekar Bawankule said the Supreme Court should hear the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute case urgently and give a decision soon as the situation is getting tense between the two states.
“I feel that no inflammatory speeches should be made by both sides. There is no meaning to what the Karnataka chief minister says or what we say. The issue will be permanently resolved if the result of the case in the apex court comes out,” the state BJP chief added.
