- Thursday, January 16, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka, two of India’s most industrialised states, has seen a serious escalation of tensions with protesters in each state targeting vehicles belonging to the other.
While those bearing registration numbers of Maharashtra were being attacked in Belagavi area of Karnataka, those from Karnataka were being defaced in Pune in Maharashtra.
The situation evolved amid growing tension in both the states over a decades-old border dispute involving Maharashtra’s claims over hundreds of Marathi-speaking villages in Belagavi and nearby areas in Karnataka.
The tension has put the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi in a spot since it is in power in both states. While Karnataka is ruled by the BJP, the government of Maharashtra has the BJP in its ruling coalition led by chief minister Eknath Shinde.
The dispute took a worse turn when two ministers from Maharashtra called off their plan to visit Belagavi on Tuesday (6) after the Karnataka government led by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai objected to it. The ministers said that had “rescheduled” their visit since they did not want any untoward incident to happen on the death anniversary of BR Ambedkar, the founder of India’s Constitution and an iconic Dalit leader.
The opposition in Maharashtra found an opportunity in this to target the Shinde-led government, accusing it of not protecting the state’s interests.
The Maharashtra government of Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena and BJP have faced similar accusations in the recent past after some lucrative industrial projects went to Gujarat, the state’s northern Gujarat.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, a former chief minister of Maharashtra and one of the state’s tallest leaders, warned Tuesday that he would visit Belagavi if the situation did not improve within 24 hours.
In Mumbai, Pawar said Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told him that he had spoken to Bommai about the violence, but “nothing had changed” even after that.
The veteran accused both the state’s chief ministers of not doing enough to restore normalcy and that things were taking a different turn.
On Monday (5), leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front) which was in power before Shinde’s government took over — the NCP, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and Congress — held a joint meeting and decided to hold a 17 December protest rally in Mumbai against the state government, ThePrint reported.
“Maharashtra is being insulted constantly. And for the first time, we are saying seeds of separatism are being sowed in the state,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) chief and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday.
“Some villages say they want to go to Karnataka, some say Telangana, some Gujarat. There is a strategy to break Maharashtra. Karnataka is trying to claim a lot of cities in Maharashtra. The question now is whether Maharashtra even has a government. When will Maharashtra show it has a Chief Minister?” he asked.
In Karnataka, DK Shivakumar, the chief of the opposition Indian National Congress, remarked last month that the Belagavi dispute is a match-fixing between the BJP leaders in both the states.
