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Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke with Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai after the border dispute between two neighbouring states over claims for Belagavi in the southern state intensified on Tuesday, with vehicles from either side being targeted.
“I have spoken with the Karnataka CM. He gave a positive response. Our Constitution provides everyone the right to live and work in any state. I will take this issue to Union home minister Amit Shah. I request the people of Maharashtra to not react,” news agency ANI quoted Fadnavis as saying.
His statement comes even as leaders from Maharashtra and Karnataka weighed in and pro-Kannada and Marathi activists were detained by police amid a tense atmosphere in the border district.
Top developments on the Belagavi border dispute:
1. Bommai asserted his government’s commitment to protect the borders and ensure Kannadigas’ welfare and denied the issue had anything to do with the 2023 assembly election in the state, where the ruling BJP is fancying a successive term. Maharashtra has raised the dispute and there is a reaction from Karnataka, he added.
2. NCP chief Sharad Pawar termed the situation in the border areas of the two states as “worrisome”, and said the time has come to take a stand after seeing what is happening there. “Maharashtra has taken a stand of observing patience and it is still ready to do that. But even that has a limit. In 24 hours, if the attacks on vehicles are not stopped then this patience will take a different path and the responsibility will be completely on the Karnataka chief minister and the Karnataka government,” Pawar told reporters in Mumbai.
3. A Maharashtra ministerial delegation that was supposed to visit Belagavi and hold discussions with a pro-Marathi group postponed its schedule while Kannada organisations staged a protest in the district in a show of strength.
4. In Pune, activists of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction sprayed black and orange paints on at least three Karnataka state transport buses in Swargate area. They also wrote “Jai Maharashtra” on these buses.
5. In a show of strength, pro-Kannada organisations staged demonstration in Belagavi, against the proposed visit of the ministerial delegation from the neighbouring state. The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, which led the agitation also announced statewide protests from Wednesday.
6. The leaders of the Kannada organisations protested against Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai’s proposed visit which was postponed later.
7. The activists held placards, banners, posters, Kannada flag and raised slogans against Maharashtra for raking up the issue. The activists reportedly blackened the number plate of a few trucks with Maharashtra registration. In view of the protests, police made elaborate security arrangements in the city to avoid any untoward incidents. To prevent the situation before turning into violent, police took the protestors under preventive custody. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike president TA Narayana Gowda expressed his displeasure over the preventive arrest.
8. A video surfaced on social media showing some people throwing stones at vehicles entering Karnataka from Maharashtra near a toll booth at Hirebaugwadi in Belagavi, prompting Fadnavis to dial Bommai and extract an assurance on protection of vehicles.
9. Sources close to Fadnavis told news agency PTI that he “made a phone call to Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and expressed his disappointment over the Hirebaugwadi incident”.
10. Belagavi district administration on Monday issued orders barring entry of the two Maharashtra Ministers and leaders to the city. Deputy commissioner and district magistrate Nitesh Patil had issued prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC, barring their entry, besides that of a MP, who are members of the Maharashtra High Power Committee on the Border Dispute.
(With inputs from PTI)
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