Tussle over Belagavi, a high political drama?

The politicians are at it again! The forgotten issue of accession of Belagavi into Maharashtra has risen again. It is now debated if it is deliberately raised to divert the attention of many internal political issues in both states. It started in its characteristic ugly form of stoning buses, beating up crew and writing graffiti on the body. In two different incidents, the six buses were stoned and three of them have been defaced.

The issue has been burning ever since the reorganisation of Karnataka state on linguistic lines in 1956. This had given rise to two other similar border issue- at Karwar in Uttara Kannada district raised by Goa and Kasaragod's accession into Karnataka in the coastal side. But both issues are now more or less on the low ebb, while Belagavi-Maharashtra issue keeps burning.

Elections in Karnataka targeted?

With Karnataka going into the election mode soon if the NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress could not have raised the issue in a better time. The NCP and Congress party had been propping up the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) and Maharashtra Navanirman Samithi. But role of Shiv Sena under the present disposition of the party is yet to be established. Is it the Shiv Sena headed by Thackeray or the one headed by Eknath Shinde? The Shiv Sena under Shinde is leading the government along with the BJP in Maharashtra and since BJP is also running the government in Karnataka and could not afford to be hostile to the Karnataka state government for political reasons.

Since the Belagavi issue is so dear to both Maharashtra and Karnataka for fomenting political situation in either side of the state, the matter is convenient for any political party named or unnamed. The MES and Shiv Sena are such big organisations just anybody can use the cause of the Marathi people and create a political situation. Such flare-ups have been happening since 1956 and the latest and the last one has a gap of 12 years. The Mahajan Committee constituted in 1960 had also observed that the problem should be looked up in the light of language, culture and population and not on emotive issues.

Political strategist of Pune BN Patil told Hans News Service that "it is one of the long standing interstate border problem in the country. It is true that Belagavi has more than 60 per cent Marathi-speaking people and the argument cannot hold good. The committee that headed the draft committee must have thought about the language being one of the major issue. But the political forces behind the scene have made this situation recur as many times possible"

A BJP leader HN Savanth in Belagavi said If you think Marathi language is the only issue, the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP must be asked if Marathi-speaking Muslim population was not an issue?" Originally known as Belgaum, the Marathi-majority district that was part of the Bombay Presidency during British times became part of Karnataka in 1956 when linguistic states were first formed in independent India.