State gets aggressive about K’taka minister’s remarks on Mumbai

Nagpur: Both houses of the state legislature on Wednesday reacted sharply to the ‘anti-Maharashtra’ comments by Karnataka law minister J C Madhuswamy and other MLAs a day earlier

Nagpur: Both houses of the state legislature on Wednesday reacted sharply to the ‘anti-Maharashtra’ comments by Karnataka law minister J C Madhuswamy and other MLAs a day earlier. Madhuswamy, responding to Uddhav Thackeray’s demand early this week that Belgavi be declared a Union territory, had riposted that Mumbai qualified for the position rather than Belgavi. Another MLA said that Mumbai belonged to Karnataka.

A nettled Maharashtra government said it would approach Union home minister Amit Shah on account of Karnataka’s continuous defiance of the mutual agreement by the two states to not act against each other until the Supreme Court gave its decision. Leader of the Opposition Ajit Pawar declared that this constant hurting of Maharashtra’s sentiments was happening because the Maharashtra chief minister and deputy chief minister had failed to give a fitting reply. (PTI)

A nettled Maharashtra government said it would approach Union home minister Amit Shah on account of Karnataka’s continuous defiance of the mutual agreement by the two states to not act against each other until the Supreme Court gave its decision. Leader of the Opposition Ajit Pawar declared that this constant hurting of Maharashtra’s sentiments was happening because the Maharashtra chief minister and deputy chief minister had failed to give a fitting reply.

Madhuswamy, on Tuesday, had said that Kannada- and Konkani-speaking citizens made up 20 percent of Mumbai. “The city was never a part of Maharashtra before its formation,” he said. “Mumbai should be a Union territory, given its cosmopolitan population and the contribution to its growth by people of other states.”

An irked Pawar said that the Karnataka government was now giving a different turn to the border dispute. “People from various states live in Mumbai in solidarity, and the Karnataka government is trying to disturb this. The CM and DCM should take a serious note of this and condemn it,” he said.

Responding to this, Fadnavis said that “nobody’s father” could stake a claim on Mumbai. “Mumbai belongs to Maharashtra and will remain with Maharashtra,” he said. “Our condemnation will be conveyed to Karnataka.”

Fadnavis rued that Karnataka’s constant violations of the agreement between the two states was hampering bilateral relations. “Maharashtra has been following the agreement but Karnataka is defiant,” he said. “We will request the Union home minister to warn the Karnataka government to follow it and tame its loudmouth leaders.”

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, going back into the past, cited a resolution adopted in the Maharashtra assembly in 1960 when the then chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan also resolved to leave the border dispute for the courts to decide. The CM said that a total of 33 resolutions had been passed in the state assembly in the last 66 years but no headway made. It was his government, he said, that initiated the process of officially solving the issue by meeting the Union home minister together with the chief minister of Karnataka.

Replying to the Opposition leaders who said that there was a BJP government at the Centre as well as in both states, Shinde asked: “All these years there was a Congress government at the Centre and the two states. Why was the issue not resolved then? This matter is always raked up by the Opposition when they have nothing else to criticise the government on.”

Shinde asked the Opposition to rest assured that the government would act with firmness. “I would like to reiterate that we will always stand by the Marathi-speaking people of the border villages,” he said. “Not an inch of land will be given to Karnataka.”

Peasants And Workers Party member Jayant Patil had also earlier demanded the Centre’s declaration of the disputed area as a Union territory on the lines of Jammu & Kashmir. “The CM, deputy CM and other BJP leaders should go to Delhi and convince the central government about this,” he said. “Opposition leaders are united on the issue and willing to accompany them on such a mission. Modiji can do it in Parliament and give justice to Maharashtra.”