Fresh sparks were witnessed in the vexed Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute on Thursday over Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi’s demand that Mumbai be declared a Union Territory pending its inclusion in southern state, even as the Uddhav Thackeray Government decided to speed up the pending litigation in the Supreme Court over the border dispute between the states.
A day after Uddhav demanded that the Marathi-speaking areas along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border in “Belgaum, Karwar, Nippani, Bidar” be declared as a Union Territory (UT) pending a final ruling by the Supreme Court in the border dispute case, Savadi made an outlandish claim that Mumbai be declared as an UT pending its inclusion in Karnataka.
In their swift reaction to Savadi’s statement, the ruling Shiv Sena and NCP Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) hit out at the Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister for his “questionable” statement. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that the Centre should intervene in the matter. “When two states are at dispute, the Centre should intervene... Pending a final Supreme court ruling on the dispute , the Karnataka Government renamed Belgaum as Belagavi, which was then declared as the second capital. A Vidhana Soudha was built and then a legislature session was held.. The Centre needs to take an impartial view of the issue”.
“There are Kannada schools and organisations in Mumbai...the Government here always supports them....does the Karnataka Government support Marathi schools in Belgaum?.”Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut asked.
A Rajya Sabha member, Raut asked Savadi to come to Mumbai and speak to the Kannada industrialists and hoteliers here and know their opinion.
Hitting out Savade for his controversial statement, NCP’s chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase wanted to know whether the Maharashtra’s BJP leadership agreed with what the Karnataka deputy chief minister’s statement “The deputy chief minister of a BJP ruled state has demanded that Mumbai be part of Karnataka. I would like state BJP president Chandrakant Patil and leader of opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis clarify their stand on Savde’s statement.
Reacting to Uddhav’s statement, Savadi said: “Until Mumbai is made part of Karnataka, I urge the central government to declare it as a Union Territory. Now that we are asking for Mumbai, things will get even”.
Alluding to the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute, Savadi said: “We condemn the Maharashtra chief minister’s statement. The Mahajan report is final. We are confident that the Supreme Court will rule in our favour as well. The demand of the people in our region (Mumbai-Karnataka) is that since we have been part of it, we, too, should have our right on Mumbai”.
Earlier on Wednesday, Uddhav had said: “Pending a final ruling by the Supreme Court in the border dispute case between the two states, the Karnataka Government went ahead and renamed Belgaum and also declared it as its second capital.
It also constructed a legislature building there and held a session. Isn’t this contempt of court? All Marathi-speaking areas occupied by Karnataka should be declared union territories until the Supreme Court gives its final verdict on their jurisdiction”
Uddhav made this statement while releasing a book, ‘Maharashtra Karnataka Simawad: Sangharsh Ani Sankalp’ (Maharashtra-Karnataka Border Dispute: Struggle and Resolve), compiled and edited by Dr Deepak Pawar, the Maharashtra government’s officer on special duty on the border dispute issue.
Meanwhile, in line with the promise made by it after assuming office in the state in November 2019, the MVA government reiterated that it would work towards pushing for an early resolution to the Maharashtra Karnataka-Karnataka border dispute.
Uddhav chaired the high-level meeting on the Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute in which state’s advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakani was present.
Legal expert and Advocate Shivaji Jadhav and senior advocate in Supreme Court Raju Ramachandran also attended the meeting from New Delhi via video-conferencing.
Uddhav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and other members of a coordination committee – Chhagan Bhujbal and Eknath Shinde — also felt that a solid legal position should be put up before the apex court.
It may be recalled that on December 7, 2019, the Shiv Sena-led MVA government had appointed a co-ordination committee, headed by Sena’s minister Eknath Shinde and NCP’s minister Chhagan Bhujbal, to speed up the pending litigation in the Supreme Court over the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute.
Wednesday was not the first occasion when Uddhav had rooted for declaration of Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka as a Union Territory as a Union Territory, pending a verdict in the border dispute case between the two states. The Sena chief had made a similar demand in August 2014.
The Sena chief’s demand had come 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.
While issuing a notice on the Siddaramaiah dispensation’s plea to the Maharashtra government, a SC bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha had on August 1 2014 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.