Belagavi border dispute: Difference between revisions

The Belgaum border dispute is a dispute involving the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Belgaum (currently a part of Karnataka) is claimed by Maharashtra on linguistic grounds.

After India became independent in 1947, the Belgaum district became a part of the Bombay State. In 1948, the Belgaum Municipality requested the Indian Dominion, Indian Constituent Assembly and the Boundary Commission to include the Belgaum Municipal District in the proposed "Samyukta" (United) Maharashtra state^[1].

But, in 1956, the Belgaum district was incorporated into the newly formed Mysore state (now Karnataka) with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, which reorganised India's states along linguistic lines. The Maharashtra government contested the inclusion, claiming the district for itself on the grounds that the district had more Marathi speaking people than Kannada speaking people (according to 1951 census).

Following a memorandum from the Maharashtra government on 23rd June, 1957, the Government of India constituted Mahajan Committee on June 5th, 1960 to look into the case. The four member Committee consisted of two representatives from the Maharashtra Government, and two from the Mysore state Government. The Committee gave a report which went against Maharashtra^[2].

The Committee disagreed on all points except that of "geograpical proximity". Maharashtra wanted to apply following points and agreed to hand over Kannada majority villages to Mysore:

1. Villages as a unit
2. Geographical proximity/integrity
3. Marathi or Kannada speakers "relative majority"; in case of villages with no populatipn, it should be merged with that state where the owners of that land reside
4. People's wish

Mysore Goverment, on the other hand, wanted status quo to be maintained.

At Maharashtra's insistence, the Government of India constituted the Mahajan Commission on October 25, 1966. The commission was headed by the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Meher Chand Mahajan. The commission, upon review of Maharashtra's claims, recommended the exchange of several villages in Belgaum district between the two states, but rejected Maharashtra's claim on Belgaum city^[3].

The Mahajan commission received 2240 memoranda and interviewed 7572 people and submitted its report. Maharashtra had asked for 814 villages besides Belgaum. It was given 262 villages including Nippani, Khanapur and Nandgad. Mysore State had claimed 516 villages, of which Maharashtra admitted that 260 were Kannada-speaking ones. It was awarded 247 villages including claim to Solapur. ^[4].

Excerpts from the Mahajan committee report regarding rejection of Maharashtra's claim over Belgaum^[4]:

Maharashtra’s claim for Belgaum is of recent origin. Though tabled in Parliament, Maharashtra MPs, especially from the treasury benches, did not vote against the amendment of Belgaum being part of their state. Belgaum is a cosmopolitan city. In 1920, when the AICC session was held in Belgaum, not a single leader from Maharashtra including N C Kelkar demanded that it be part of that state. Geographically, Kannada areas surround the city of Belgaum on three sides and by a smattering of villages belonging to Maharashtra on the fourth. Reorganisation will cause extreme hardship. Status quo should be maintained. From the records of rights of Belgaum city, it is seen that a majority of lands belong to Kannadigas. All the original records in the offices of the mamlatdar and collector are in Kannada. On the appreciation of the whole material and assessing it objectively, I have reached the conclusion that I cannot recommend the inclusion of Belgaum city in the state of Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra and Kerala government refuted the recommendations of the report and demanded another review of the issue. Maharashtra goverment termed the findings of the reports as biased and self-contradictory because the "formula" applied for Kasaragode was not applied for Belgaum. Maharashtra Government insisted that the report is against the "wish of people" of Belgaum. Kerala, on the other hand, refused to hand over Kasaragode to Karnataka. The Karnataka government, continued to press for the implementation of the report or maintaining status quo.

Maharashtra insisted on 1951 census, as the dispute had arised due to States Reorganisation Act of 1956. According to 1951 census the percentages of Marathi-speakers (with Kannada-speakers in brackets) were as follows:

• Belgaum city: 51.2% (28.8%)
• Shahapur: 67.0% (23.2%)
• Belgaum cantonment: 43.6% (10.6%)
• Belgaum suburbs: 30.9% (21.8%)

The Mahajan commission, however, used 1961 census. According to maps of 1961 census, Belgaum was surrounded by Marathi speaking areas on all sides. Mahajan commission said that its decisions on border dispute is not related with number of Marathi schools and students in Belgaum.

In case of Kasaragode, the Mahajan commission had considered the significance of Kannada schools and students in Kasaragode, Kerala as opposed to Malyalam schools. It had also considered the win of a Kannada canditate of Kasaragode as a reason for merger with Karnataka. However, in case of Belgaum, it didn't take into account, the number of Marathi-medium schools and their students, or the winning streak of pro-Maharashtra Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) in elections.

Maharashtra countered the Mahajan commission's claim of Belgaum having economic relations with Kannada-speaking areas, citing the report presented by Belgaum Municipal Corporation. The report claimed that 87% of octroi collected by corporation was on goods coming from Maharashtra.

Maharashtra insisted that Mahajan Commission is not the final verdict on this dispute and ex-Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi himself had asserted about it.^[5] The Maharashtra Goverment rejected the Mahajan Commission's report claiming that it was biased, illogical and against people's wish.

Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES), a pro-Maharashtra organization, emerged as the dominant party in the Belgaum City Council (BCC) elections in 1980s and 1990s while it has been continuously winning all elections since the emergence of the problem. MES claims that nearly 43% of the Belgaum's population is Marathi-speaking, while the Kannada groups claim that this figure has come down to around 35%, and the Kannada-speakers make up 32% of the population^[1].

The first BCC)elections were held in December 1983. The MES-dominated BCC made demands for transfer of Belgaum to Maharashtra in 1990, 1996 and 2001. More than 250 MES-dominated gram and taluk panchayats, and some other municipalities (such as neighbouring Khanapur) passed similar resolutions^[1]. In 1986, a seema ladai ("border agitation") led by pro-Maharashtra leaders such as Sharad Pawar and S M Joshi led to large-scale arson and nine deaths in Belgaum.

During H.D. Deve Gowda's tenure as Chief Minister of Karnataka (1994-96), a pro-Karnataka organization called Kannada Cheluvarigara Sangha submitted a memorandum to the Karnataka Government, asking it to set up of large industries so that 20,000 to 30,000 Kannadigas would come to Belgaum and settle down^[1].

The pro-Marathi groups protested against the Government notices and records not being translated in Marathi. The Officials Language Act, 1963 and 1981, states that "areas where the linguistic minorities constitute 15 per cent or more of the local population arrangements have to be made to translate government circulars, orders, extracts and land records into the minority language". In a letter (DO No RB Kannada CR 09/2000-01), Belgaum's Deputy Commissioner, Shalini Rajneesh reasoned that while suitable instructions had been given to the local authorities for the translation of documents into Marathi, it did not happened because the staff was "overloaded with the basic work to be carried out in the official language, that is, Kannada"^[1].

On October 27, 2005, the MES-controlled BCC passed a resolution requesting the Karnataka State government and the Supreme Court of India to merge disputed border areas in the districts of Belgaum (including Khanapur, Nippani and Belgaum city), Uttara Kannada (including Karwar and Haliyal) and Bidar (including Bhalki, Aurad and Basavakalyan) with Maharashtra.

Some members of a pro-Karnataka group called Kannada Rakshana Vedike manhandled the BCC mayor Vijay More, former mayor Shivaji Sunthakar and former legislator B I Patil, when the three were standing outside the Karnataka Legislators' Home in Bangalore. The attackers tore Vijay More's shirt and daubed him with black paint.

On November 10, the Mayor was served with a showcause notice by the Karnataka Government seeking why the resolution should not be cancelled under Section 98 and 99 of the KMC Act. On November 17, the government cancelled the resolution, without waiting for the Mayor's reply. On November 17, it served another notice that sought an explanation from the Mayor as to why the BCC should not be dissolved under Section 99 of the KMC Act.

On November 19, T N Chaturvedi, the Governor of Karnataka, criticized BCC during a public function. A group of Kannada organizations set November 22 as the deadline for dissolving BCC and threatened to call a State-wide bandh on November 24 if this was not done. On November 21, 2005, the Karnataka government dissolved the Council, under pressure from Kannada chauvinists, citing violation of Section 18 of the KMC Act^[1].

The MES secretary, Maloji Astekar, insisted that the BCC resolution was in accordance with the provisions of the KMC Act, 1976, and the Fundamental Rights enshrined under Article 19(1) of the Constitution of India. He accused the Karnataka Government of "step-motherly treatment". The legal team of MES pointed out that both the cancellation of the resolution and the dissolution of the Council were done without giving 15 days' time as was stipulated in the notice to enable the Mayor to submit his explanations. MES called a bandh in protest. A delegation of MES leaders visited Mumbai and met Maharashtra leaders, including Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Deshmukh wrote letters to Karnataka Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing displeasure over the action taken against the BCC.

In December 2005, attempts were also made by Congress led government at the Centre to rekindle discussions on the boundary dispute with the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Karnataka and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ^[6]. But even this effort proved futile as Karnataka continued to press for the implementation of the report and Maharashtra continued to stake its claim on Belgaum city and few other parts of Karnataka.

Finally, on March 15 2006, the Maharashtra government filed a petition in the Supreme Court.Maharashtra staked a claim over Belgaum city citing, in its opinion "the feeling of insecurity among the Marathi speaking people living in Karnataka, in the recent days"^[3]. Belgaum district along with Belgaum city continues to be a part of Karnataka state while Maharashtra awaits Supreme Court's verdict.

Following Maharashtra government's petition in apex court,Central government had sided with Karnataka but after immense pressure from Maharashtra, centre's affadavit in the court is said to be neutral and not endorsing either of the parties involved.

On September 25th, 2006, admist vociferous protests by MES, the Karnataka state government convened a five-day Assembly session in Belgaum, for the first time outside its capital, Bangalore, to assert its hold over the border city.^[7].

The Karnataka Government declared that Belgaum will be made Karnataka's second state capital but later Karnataka home-minister denied it.^[8] The Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy declared that the joint legislative session will be held every year in Belgaum, and a mini Vidhana Soudha (state secretariat) will be built in the city^[9].

The Houses unanimously adopted a resolution, endorsing the Mahajan Commission report which declared Belgaum a part of Karnataka. This is the fifth time that Karnataka has passed such a resolution, the first being in 1967 when S Nijalingappa was the CM^[10].

Congress, the opposition party in the Karnataka State dubbed the Belgaum session "a gimmick and a waste of funds". Ironically, the decision to hold the legislative session at Belgaum was taken by the previous Dharam Singh government, when Congress was in power^[11].

On the same day of the Assembly session, the MES organized a mahamelava ("The Great Meet-up"), which received a huge response. The mahamelava was attended by the Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister, R. R. Patil and many leaders from Shiv Sena, NCP and MES. The leaders ridiculed the Karnataka Government's assembly session and vowed to merge Belgaum and adjoining areas to Maharashtra. The Karnataka Goverment condemned R R Patil's address. It annouced that Belgaum (Belgaon in Marathi) will be renamed to Belagavi.

Karnataka Border Agitation Committee, an umbrella body of pro-Kannada outfits, called a statewide bandh in Karnataka in October 2006. The bandh was been called to press for the implementation of Mahajan Commission report and to protest what the organisers called "step-motherly" treatment of the state by the Centre. The Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's appeal to call of the bandh was turned down by the organizers. BJP and JD(S), the ruling coalition partners in Karnataka extended their support to the bandh. The bandh affected the normal life in Bangalore in other parts of Karnataka.^[12]. During the bandh, Kannada Rakshana Vedike memebers allegedly tore Marathi signboards and saffron flags and forced the residents of Belgaum to stop the business. Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti answered the Vedike members in similar way and alleged that the Karnataka bandh was backed by Karnataka Police. Karnataka Police later arrested many Marathi residents which was criticised by Marathi speakers who expressed displeasure as police didn't take action against Kannada chauvinists. Maharashtra home-minister R.R.Patil warned that torture against Marathi speakers will result into similar response by them.^[13][14]

Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti organised Yuvamelvala (Youth convention) at Khanapur on 26 October,2006. It was well-received and attended by Maharashtra's leader of opposition,Ramdas Kadam and state-minister,Hassan Mushrif. Marathi people in border region once again resoluted to merge with Maharashtra. Kadam warned Karnataka that atrocities against Maharashtrians will be result in similar response against Kannadigas in Maharashtra. Speakers at convention said imposition of Kannada and troubling Marathi people of border region won't suppress the Belgaum struggle. MES leaders said the success of mahamelava forced Karnataka to cancel its decision of making Belgaum the 2nd capital .^[5]The situation was tense in Khanapura for the whole day because of the violence which erupted when MES activists tried to remove Kannada boards from shops. Violence was sparked when attendants clashed with police during the event. Police had to resort for lati charge and shells to disperse the mob when youths pelted stones at police without any reason and just to provoke. More than 50 people were injured and about 25 vehicles were damaged.^[15]Police took about 256 Marathi youth into custody.^[16] MES activists even tried to set the bus on fire on two occasions. They continued stoning at people and shops as they moved along.^[17]

• Belgaon, Karwar, Nippanicha Simaprashna kai aahe? (What is border dispute of Belgaum, Karwar and Nippani?) Special edition, Belgaum Tarun Bharat

• MES in Yallur roots for return to Maratha soil
• Records lay bare Maharashtra's demand for Belgaum's transfer
• Belgaum merger: flogging a dead horse
• Centre bats for State on boundary
• Sena criticises central affidavit
• Center does a flip flop on boundry issue