PICTURE SPEAK

PLAYING WITH FIRE: Kannada protestors burn an effigy of Belgaum mayor

The north-west Karnataka district of Belgaum sits exactly halfway between Mumbai and Bangalore, 500 km away from each metro. It is also home to the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), a pro-Marathi body which has been fighting for the merger of Marathi speaking villages in the district with Maharashtra since it was founded in 1956. Last month, the Belgaum City Corporation, controlled by the MES, passed a resolution seeking the merger, provoking strong reactions from the fast growing Kannada movements across the state, especially in the capital Bangalore. On November 11, Kannada activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike ambushed Belgaum Mayor Vijay Panduranga More at the high-security Legislators Home and painted him black. Another former mayor, Shivaji Sunhakar, who came to More's rescue, was cornered while the police looked on. The attack took place within a hundred yards of the chief minister's office.

Angry Marathi youths called for a bandh the day after the assault on More, an MES member. MES legislator Manohar Kinekar warned, "The activists should remember there are Kannadigas also in Belgaum." Suppporting the resolution, Kinekar said: "Many taluk panchayats and about 30 Gram Panchayats in Belgaum district have passed resolutions in the past for merger but the Government did not act on them."

The MES members, which were a divided lot until the More attack, have now set aside their differences. The MES usually sent five legislators to the 224-strong Karnataka Assembly, but this year it sent only two. "The attack will see some consolidation of the Marathi strength there," said Professor Joshua Samuel, a policy analyst in Bangalore.

TIME LINE

JANUARY 2005: Karnataka files 1,665-page affidavit in Supreme Court in support of Belgaum. OCTOBER 27: Belgaum Mayor Vijay More moves resolution to merge the district with Maharashtra. NOVEMBER 11: More is attacked and his face blackened by activists of pro-Kannada groups. NOVEMBER 21: Karnataka Government supersedes Belgaum Corporation for passing the resolution.

Kannada organisations have threatened a statewide bandh on November 24 if Chief Minister Dharam Singh does not dissolve the Belgaum Corporation for adopting the resolution. The Durgigudi Kannada Sangha in Shimoga, for example, said that during the reorganisation of the states in 1956, Karnataka had given up several Kannada-speaking areas such as Sholapur and Akkalakote to Maharashtra in return for Belgaum. "But the Kannadigas in these border areas are not causing any problem in Maharashtra, while only a handful of Marathi-speaking people in Belgaum are creating problems...." a Sangha resolution stated. Another powerful Kannada leader Patil Puttappa said, "We know that this corporation resolution is a worthless one, but the Karnataka Government needed to symbolically show them their place. We are demanding total implementation of the Mahajan Commission Report under which Belgaum will stay with Karnataka."

PICTURE SPEAK
BLACKLISTED: More (above); the Corporation

The five-decade-old border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra came to the fore when it was raised at the All India Marathi Literary Conference held in Belgaum in north Karnataka last year. The conference urged Maharashtra to approach the Supreme Court to decide on merging Belgaum, Karwar and Nipani with Maharashtra. Singh struck at the pro-Marathi groups by superseding the Belgaum Corporation on November 21 and the Belgaum Deputy Commissioner was appointed administrator. The Government order did not mention the resolution which the Corporation had adopted. "The dispute is already before the Supreme Court and we did not want to add to any more legal troubles," said a law department official.

The move made the Kannada groups happy, but drew a sharp reaction from Singh's Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh. In a letter to him, Deshmukh protested against the dismissal of the corporation. The letter said, "Such an action can result in creation of discontent among the two states.... Considering the sentiments of Marathi people in Belgaum and Maharashtra, the corporation should be reinstated." Deshmukh has also written to the prime minister.

Singh, however, said that the chapter was closed. "Belgaum can never go to Maharashtra; it has always been a part of Karnataka and will always be," he said. The issue had also come up when former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna was sworn in as governor of Maharashtra, creating a conflict of interest in his views on the subject. Karnataka is in no mood to give up. Singh says that the H.B. Datar Committee looking into the dispute has already filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court.

Border problems are nothing new to Karnataka, which has a tough time handling relations with its neighbouring states Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Now, Andhra Pradesh has also joined in the chorus, complaining about river water projects on the Karnataka border which, it says, deprive the state of its share of water. It is against the construction of the Paragodu dam and the height of the Almatti dam. In Kerala, Kannada-speaking areas in the border district of Kasaragod have been demanding the merger with Karnataka for several years.

Says Congress legislator Dinesh Gundu Rao: "Looking after problems within the state itself is a big thing, and now to monitor the border issue is like monitoring the line of control dispute between India and Pakistan." Kannada and Marathi activists in the state have, however, formed their own lines of control, raising fresh fears of linguistic tensions.

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