Drawing line on Karnataka-Maharashtra border row
BELAGAVI: The vexed boundary dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra seems to crop up whenever the state legislature sessions are held at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi. And just a minor incident is enough to spark a major row. Importantly, this time, the conflict erupted when the legislatures of Karnataka and Maharashtra were in session almost simultaneously.
The latest trigger was the blackening of the face of Deepak Dalvi, a top leader of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) in Belagavi during the Mahamelava. This led to burning of a Kannada flag at Kolhapur in Maharashtra and stoning of several Karnataka vehicles.
The matter spiralled when a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji was desecrated in Bengaluru and the following day, a statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna was defaced in Belagavi. In Karnataka, calls are now getting shriller to ban the MES with Kannada organisations calling for a state bandh on December 31 if no action is taken by then.
Even after 65 years of reorganisation of states, the Maharashtra Government and pro-Marathi organisations continue to stake claim over several border areas of Karnataka, including Belagavi city. The Karnataka Government, time and again, has declared that the boundary dispute is a closed chapter and that the recommendations of Mehar Chand Mahajan Commission are binding.
While sending a strong message to Maharashtra on its demands for merger of several areas of the state with it, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced in the state Assembly a few days ago: “Karnataka will not give up even an inch of its land. The Suvarna Vidhan Soudha in Belagavi is another power centre of Karnataka state and it will remain in the state until the Sun and Moon exist.”
Since the reorganisation of states in 1956, several out-of-court measures by the Centre to resolve the dispute between the two states have gone in vain. Besides the Mahajan Commission, constituted in 1966 by the Centre to address the border dispute, many efforts have been made to find a lasting solution to the row, but the two states have failed to come to a consensus on any of the recommendations and reports submitted by various commissions.
Prime Ministers in the past have fixed meetings of chief ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra on several occasions to find a solution to the boundary dispute, but the CMs never turned up, says former MLA Manohar Kinekar, who is at the forefront of the MES movement, which is pitting for merger of the state’s border areas with Maharashtra.
“The Centre should again take the initiative to find a lasting solution to the dispute. We are ready to agree to any of the decisions taken by the Centre to finally end the dispute. We are ready to accept even if the decision is in favour of Karnataka,’’ he says.
The Maharashtra government moved the Supreme Court when all out-of-court and other measures for a dispute resolution got exhausted in 2004 – almost 48 years after the reorganisation of states. According to sources, a fresh hearing on the boundary row in the Apex Court is expected in mid-January 2022.
In response to Maharashtra’s petition in the SC, the Karnataka Government has contended that the boundary dispute does not come under the purview of the courts and that only Parliament has powers to decide on the creation and recreation of state’s boundaries. “The boundary dispute case is not maintainable as Maharashtra has moved the court 55 years after the reorganisation of states,’’ the Karnataka Government had earlier claimed in court.
MORE POLITICAL THAN LEGAL
To ascertain whether it could file a case in the Supreme Court for a solution to the row, the Maharashtra Government had constituted a committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice YV Chandrachud, who recommended that under Article 131 of the Constitution, anything could be challenged in the Supreme Court. On his recommendations, Maharashtra filed a case in the apex court against Karnataka in 2004.
For the last two years, both the governments did not pursue the case due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation. Most of the legal formalities have been completed by both the states and the Centre too replied to the court about its stand on the boundary row, say highly-placed sources in New Delhi.
A top Supreme Court advocate says the boundary case is getting more political than legal, given the way it is being handled by both states. The leaders in the government, whether Karnataka or Maharashtra, are concerned more about their political gains from the issue rather than taking some concrete measures to find a lasting solution, he said.
“Parliament is the sole authority to take a call on creation and recreation of states and its boundaries. Nobody can question it. Only in the rarest cases, when it is noticed that the decisions taken by Parliament are arbitrary, the Supreme Court can review the case. Although the boundaries are drawn on linguistic lines, areas on the border in many states are occupied predominantly by people speaking different languages. Parliament has reorganised the states effectively by considering all the aspects,’’ he added.
CLAIMS OF MAHARASHTRA
To stake its claim on Karnataka’s border areas, pro-Maharashtra leaders in Belagavi region launched the MES soon after the reorganisation of states, and, in the years that followed, the MES-supported candidates in many constituencies of Belagavi district on the border have won as MLAs in several elections hands down.
Many MES candidates have been mayors of Belagavi since then. From 1957 to 1998, all MLAs who won from Belagavi constituency were supported by MES.The Mahajan Commission recommended transfer of 268 villages, towns and cities of Karnataka to Maharashtra including Nandagad, Nipani and Khanapur, and in turn, recommended for transfer of 248 villages, towns, cities of Maharashtra to Karnataka, including Solapur, Jath and Akkalkot.
However, the Maharashtra government refused to accept the report as it mainly wanted Belagavi city to be merged with Maharashtra. In fact, the commission was named on the insistence of the Maharashtra government when late Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister.
CURRENT STATUS OF MES
In the last two decades, the MES has completely lost its significance in the region. From six to seven MLAs which it had in all the Assembly elections held in Belagavi region until 1998, the count has reduced to zero in recent years. The MES did not win even a single seat in the last three Assembly elections. It lost in Nipani and Khanapur also, where more than 90 per cent of people speak Marathi. And yet, the Maharashtra government continues to exert pressure on the Centre and bolsterits legal battle in the apex court.
EXPERTS’ TAKE
All political parties and leaders in Karnataka have said Belagavi is an integral part of the state and claim that the boundary dispute is a closed chapter. Noted Kannada leaders Shivangouda Patil and Srinivas Talukar say Maharashtra’s attempts for merger of areas of Karnataka will never materialise as the state’s boundaries were marked scientifically by taking all factors into consideration. Activist Ashok Chandargi says Karnataka must bolster its legal teams in the Supreme Court to stake the state’s claims strongly. He said the state’s claims that the boundary case is not maintainable as Maharashtra filed the case in the court 55 years after the reorganisation of states was effective and logical.