Belagavi dispute: Yediyurappa lashes out at Uddhav Thackeray over statements on border issue

Bengaluru, January 19: Karnataka CM and politicians lashed out at Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray after he passes controversial statements on the 50-year-old sensitive border dispute between Maharastra and Karnatak on Sunday.

 

On Sunday, Thackeray declared that his government is “working towards” incorporating Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka, into Maharashtra.

 

“Bringing back all the Marathi-speaking and culturally Maharashtrian areas that have been occupied by Karnataka back into Maharashtra is the only tribute to those who have attained martyrdom in the border dispute fight. We are united and committed to this cause. We bow down to the martyrs with this promise," the Maharashtra CMO tweeted.

 

Thackeray's controversial comment irked Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa. After which B.S. Yediyurappa come down heavily on Thackery and condemned Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray’s statement.Yediyurappa lashed out against Uddhav Thackerayand said that his “misplaced talk of regionalism and linguistic identity,” whilst referring to the issue of reorganisation of the two states.

 

“I strongly condemn his statement about reorganising the two states. Marathi-speaking people and Kannadigas have peacefully coexisted in the border areas of both Karnataka and Maharashtra,” BS Yediyurappa said.

 

 

He said, “There is no question of giving even an inch of land from Karnataka to Maharashtra. He should give up issuing statements just for political reasons.”

 

Targeting the Maharastra CM he said, "It is painful that the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra are trying to sabotage this amicable atmosphere. Let Uddhav Thackeray as an Indian show his commitment to respecting the principle of unionism."

 

The remark has erupted the protest in Belagavi and Bengaluru. Members of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike held up an effigy of Uddhav Thackeray on a deathbed and paraded it across the streets while shouting, “We will fight till the end.”

 

Apart from Thackeray Maharashtra Minister for Urban Development and Public Works, Eknath Shinde said that Marathi-speaking regions were “unjustly snatched from Maharashtra” in 1956 when states were reorganised based on languages in India.

 

“In 1956, several Marathi-majority regions were snatched away unjustly from Maharashtra, and ever since the fight has been going on to include them into our state. Every year on January 17, we celebrate Martyrs Day to commemorate those who fought for this cause and died. We will continue to fight for it,” Eknath Shinde said.

 

Thackeray also recently alleged in the Maharashtra Assembly that the BJP-led central government was siding with Karnataka and was ignoring Maharashtra in the Supreme Court case over the dispute.

 

The dispute between the two states is not new. Belagavi is a district in Karnataka, which borders Maharashtra’s Kohlapur district, and the people living in Belagavi, also known as Belgaum, comprises both Kannada and Marathi speakers. After India became independent of the British rule, these areas around Belagavi became a part of Karnataka, when the state was formed in 1956.

 

In 1966, the Mahajan Commission headed by former Chief Justice Merh Singh Mahajan was set up to look into the border dispute between the erstwhile Bombay and Mysore states. In August 1967, the Commission submitted its report and recommended that 264 villages be transferred to Maharashtra (which was formed in 1960) and that Belgaum and 247 villages remain with Karnataka.

 

Meanwhile, police deployment has been increased around the border areas of Belagavi, in order to make sure that no untoward incidents take place.