The leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi have once again got
an opportunity to blabber about the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue after
the statement made by Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. These leaders
who lost power in the state are agitated at the way things have politically
unfolded. And hence due to this resentment, they are constantly making false
propaganda on any issue arising in the state. I can totally understand their
irritation and anger. But what surprises me is that the MVA leaders are not
concerned about the repercussions of their deeds and are grabbing every
opportunity to defame Maharashtra.
Immediately after the Shinde-Fadnavis government came to
power, the MVA leaders began spreading false news that industries are leaving
Maharashtra. And the moment deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis proved with
evidence that projects like the Saffron and Foxconn had actually moved out of
Maharashtra during the tenure of the MVA government only, these blabbering
leaders of the then Aghadi government were forced to keep quiet. What I fail to
understand is how these leaders are not ashamed for being exposed for spreading
rumours. God knows where they master this skill of being stubborn?
Based on Bommai’s statement, once again the leaders of
the MVA have started to spread ‘false news with utmost determination’. What
pains me is the fact that in order to gain petty political mileage, these
leaders are not hesitating to even defame Maharashtra. The leaders from the
Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and Uddhav Thackeray are recklessly
claiming that nearly 40 villages from Sangli district in Maharashtra will go to
Karnataka. No matter what Karnataka chief minister has to say, but don’t
leaders like Ajit Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray know that there is no chance of
the villages on the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka to go to Karnataka. But
still, Uddhav Thackeray and his followers are recklessly spreading rumours that
40 villages have gone to Karnataka.
If we dig into the past, we will find several proofs
that will show that the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue had been aggravated
since 1956 due to the incompetence of the then central and state leadership
headed by the Congress. And not just Maharashtra-Karnataka, but there are a
host of evidences to prove how the central Congress leadership was only
responsible for not handling even the Kashmir issue appropriately.
It may be recalled that in 1956, the then Nehru government
had taken the decision of organising the provinces on linguistic basis. Also,
after independence, there was a demand for the states to be identified on
linguistic basis. In fact, before independence also, the Congress leadership
had, on several occasions, demanded language-wise regionalization. Prior to
that, i.e., on December 22, 1953, the then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru had
announced the formation of the State Reorganisation Commission in the
Parliament. Accordingly, based on the recommendations of the State
Reorganisation Commission, the central government had regionalized states on
linguistic basis. And then according to the recommendation the old trilingual
Bombay province was converted into a bilingual state. Also, the four districts
of Belgaum, Dharwad, Bijapur and Karwar in the then Bombay
province were included in the then Mysore province. At
that time, the then Bombay Provincial government had asked the then Central
government that the villages at the border having majority of Marathi speaking
population from the four districts be reunited with the Bombay Province. Since
then, this issue has been taken up for debates with the courts, the legislature
and even the Parliament. But till date there has been no solution whatsoever.
It must be noted that determining the boundaries of the
states and creation of new states comes under the purview of the union minister
of home affairs. Leaders from Maharashtra like Yashwantrao Chavan, Shankarrao
Chavan, Shivraj Patil and Sushilkumar Shinde have held this position. But they
had all failed to persuade the then Prime Ministers and to resolve this border
issue. None of these leaders, right from Yashwantrao to Sushilkumar, could
manage to convince the then Congress’ central leadership including the then Prime
Ministers as to how fair it would be to include Belgaum Karwar in Maharashtra.
In fact, there are instances mentioned in history where owing to the pressure
brought by the then Congress leaders in Andhra Pradesh, Prime Minister Nehru
was forced to divide Hyderabad state and form a separate Andhra state. Pressing
for the demand of independent Andhra state, the Congress workers, had in those
days, staged a massive agitation. But the Nehru government had not taken it
seriously. Finally, Potti Ramulu, a Gandhian activist, sat on hunger strike
demanding a separate Andhra state. The government had turned a blind eye even
to this hunger strike. And after 58 days, Ramulu succumbed to this hunger
strike. His demise caused a serious uproar. Looking at the widespread violence
and the discontent among the Telugu speakers, Nehru was forced to announce the
creation of an independent Andhra state. The reason for narrating this history
was to make everyone aware how the Congress leadership has always been adept at
wrecking such glaring issues.
In 1956, the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti was
spearheading the agitation for a united Maharashtra with Belgaum, Nipani and
Karwar included. Keshavrao Jedhe, Senapati Bapat, Prabodhankar Thackeray,
Dadasaheb Gaikwad, Com. Dange, Acharya Atre and senior socialist leader SM
Joshi were leading the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti. The Samyukta Maharashtra
Samiti and the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in Belgaum region were continuously
protesting and were fighting for their demand of including Belgaum, Karwar,
Nipani in Maharashtra. Later, to resolve this issue, the Central government had
appointed the Mahajan Commission in 1966. But Maharashtra could not decide its
jurisdiction. Haribhau Pataskar, who had mediated in the border issue between Tamil
Nadu and Andhra, had suggested that the state-wide border disputes must be
resolved considering the villages as the prime factor. Maharashtra had also
recommended the same proposal to the Mahajan Commission. But the Mahajan
Commission had rejected Maharashtra’s claim. Instead, the Mahajan Commission
maintained that Belgaum along with Nipani and other areas will continue to
remain in Karnataka only. The Mahajan Commission did not consider criteria like
villages, linguistic majority, geographical contiguity, etc before submitting
its report.
From 1956 to 1985, how the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti
and the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti were fighting for the demand of Belgaum and
other areas to be included in Maharashtra and how the then Congress leadership
was not paying any heed to this demand has been penned down by SM Joshi with
enough evidences in his autobiography titled ‘Me SM’. Madhu Dandavate had also
maintained that the Congress leadership was worried about the reactions it
would get from Karnataka if the decision was in favour of Maharashtra or from
Maharashtra if the decision was in favour of Karnataka. Despite extreme
reactions coming up from Maharashtra on this issue, the then Congress’ central
leadership that was in power in both the state and at the Centre was not
affected at all.
The criticism levelled by socialist leaders like SM
Joshi and Madhu Dandavate are enough testimony against the Congress leadership.
Nehru’s goof-up while merging the state of Jammu & Kashmir with India and
how Pakistan had tried to infiltrate a part of Kashmir, are all known to the
people. And hence there is no point in repeating it. At that time, venerable
Balasaheb Thackeray had also taken to the streets against the Congress
regarding the border issue. And today, Balasaheb’s son Uddhavrao has joined
hands with the same Congress. During the governance led by the Congress, the
Punjab issue had flared up and there was major agitation in Assam as well.
Uddhavrao needs to revisit this history and then decide whether he still wants
the alliance with the Congress. That’s all for now.
(Article Pre-Published in Times of India – 28 NOV. 2022)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
No comments:
Post a Comment