Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing, a petition filed by the Karnataka Government seeking to restrain Maharashtra from setting up a Marathi-speaking school in the disputed border area, a delegation of 18 Shiv Sena MPs, led by party president Uddhav Thackeray, plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reiterate its demand that the disputed border area be declared as a Union Territory.
On Wednesday evening, Uddhav announced his decision to lead a delegation of Sena MPs to the Prime Minister, after representatives of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which is spearheading the agitation by Marathi-speaking people in border areas of Karnataka, called on him at his Bandra residence and urged him to take up their issue with the Centre.
Uddhav discussed with MES representatives and the lawyers representing them the issues relating to a petition filed by the Karnataka Government seeking to restrain its neighbouring State from setting up Marathi-speaking school in the disputed border area.
While issuing a notice on the Siddaramaiah dispensation’s plea to the Maharashtra Government, a SC bench headed by Chief Justice RM lodha had on August 1 expressed concern over the Karnataka police allegedly beating Marathi-speaking population after some snaps of the incidents were placed before it.
“If the State acts in such a manner then nothing can be more serious,” the bench had said, while granting six weeks time to the Maharashtra Government to respond to the notice. The petition is slated to come up for hearing before the Supreme Court on September 12.
At Wednesday’s meeting, a seven-member delegation, consisting of a sitting MlA, two former MlAs from the border areas, told the Sena President that though they had submitted several evidences to the apex court to illustrate why Marathi-speaking areas on Karnataka border should be merged with Maharashtra, their petition had not been receiving adequate support from the law and justice department in Maharashtra.
Ahead of his meeting with the Prime Minister, Uddhav will also meet Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan with the delegation in this regard.
The Sena’s demand for imposition of a Centrally-administered rule in the Marathi-speaking areas of Karnataka, pending a verdict by the Supreme Court is a reiteration of a stand taken by all the political parties many times over in the past.
In a resolution adopted unanimously on July 13, 2010, the Maharashtra Assembly unanimously had urged the then UPA government to re-consider its affidavit made the apex court seven days earlier, rejecting outright Maharashtra’s claim – made in its 2004 affidavit and its application in 2009 -- over 865 villages in Belgaum, Karwar, Bidar and Gulbarga districts in Karnataka. In its petition, the Centre had taken a stand that “just because most people in the border districts speak Marathi, it is not ground enough for the areas to be appended to Maharashtra”.
Upset with the “atrocities” of the Karnataka police against Marathi-speaking people in Yellur village in Belgaum district, the Shiv Sena had on July 28 this year demanded that the “disputed” border areas between the two states be declared as a Union territory, while its alliance partner BJP wrote to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking an inquiry into the alleged police brutality.
likening the “atrocities” of the Karnataka police against the Marathi-speaking people in Yellur village to the acts of “terror” indulged in by Jamaat Ud Dawa founder Hafiz Saeed and his brand of cross-border terrorism, the Shiv Sena – in an editorial published in its official mouth-piece “Saamana” – sought the intervention of the Narendra Modi government in resolving the vexed border dispute between the two states.
In the editorial, the Sena mouth-piece stated that the Marathi-speaking people in the disputed border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka were pinning their hopes on an “impartial” Narendra Modi government – with Rajnath Singh as its “strong” Union Home Minister – to rein in the high-handed Karnataka police.
“Given that the Karnataka police are terrorising Marathi-speaking people in the border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka along the lines of terror acts indulged in by Hafiz Saeed and (Mohammed Ajmal) Kasab, it is the Centre’s responsibility to rein in the acts of terror,” the editorial added.
Alluding to the removal of a sign board which said “Maharashtra State – Yellur” in Marathi by the Belgaum district administration last month, the “Saamana” editorial stated: “In Mumbai, institutions like Karnataka Sangh, and Karnataka Bhavan are standing with glory, but Karnataka government removing a Marathi board reeks of arrogance. The hotels and businesses owned by Kannadigas have not been touched, but Marathi-speaking brothers are being trampled by the police boots daily”.