Maharashtra-Karnataka border row: NCP’s Ajit Pawar seeks Shinde govt’s response over Bommai’s remarks

The NCP leader said if the pending border issue is not resolved, such tactics will create more hurdles in Maharashtra’s path to claim disputed areas on the border with Karnataka. “It is not only this government but even our failure that Jat does not have Marathi schools and as a result, Kannada schools are still running and the Karnataka government is now saying it will fund them,” he said. Pawar added that such statements from the Karnataka CM should be opposed.

Fadnavis, while speaking to the media in Nagpur, said, “The Jat resolution was passed in 2012. It is an old proposal. We have not received any new proposal from Karnataka.”

While asserting that Maharashtra’s stand on claiming Carvar, Nippani and Belgavi is non-negotiable, Fadnavis said, “We will contest our stand within the legal framework in the Supreme Court. Our government is committed to acquire the Marathi-speaking villages along the Karnataka-Maharashtra border.”

He added, “Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde recently held a meeting to draw a detailed plan to resolve the border dispute. The state government is committed to amicably resolve the dispute and claim border villages. The Karnataka CM’s response may have come in the backdrop of Shinde’s meeting.”

Earlier, Shinde at a meeting held in Mumbai had promised pension to freedom fighters of Belagavi and other parts of Karnataka. The CM had also extended the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojna (cashless medical care) for the freedom fighters.

To counter Maharashtra’s claims, Bommai Tuesday had offered special grants to Kannada medium schools in Maharashtra. It had also announced pension for Kannadigas in Maharashtra who had fought for the unification of the state.

The political upmanship between Maharashtra and Karnataka is not new. It has its origins in the linguistic reorganisation of the states done in the 1950s. Both Maharashtra and Karnataka were formed in 1960. But since its inception, Maharashtra has asserted that 865 villages along the border, including Carvar, Nippani and Belagavi (earlier Belgaum), should be merged with Maharashtra. Karnataka had rejected the claim but had asserted its rights over 260 Kannada-speaking villages along the Maharashtra border.

The central government-appointed Mahajan Commission of 1967 had recommended transfer of 264 of the 865 villages in Maharashtra while on Karnataka’s demand of 260 villages, the commission had recommended transfer of 247 villages from Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra government had approached the Supreme Court in 2004 against the Centre and the Karnataka government and the matter is still pending. Meanwhile, hundreds of agitations and protests have been held in Maharashtra and Karnataka till date but to no avail.

For the past seven decades, Maharashtra has consistently pledged it will rightfully reclaim the Marathi-speaking villages into the state and resolve the dispute through a legal battle.

Interestingly, all political parties, setting aside their ideological differences, have made the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute a common cause. They speak in one voice both within the state legislative Assembly and council and outside. Yet, the border dispute has remained an emotive plank which resurfaces before the elections. The issue is often used by political parties to consolidate its Marathi vote bank. It has become synonymous with Marathi and Maharashtra’s Asmita (pride).