Karnataka polls: Cultural faultiness in focus near K’taka-Maha border

Belagavi city is ground zero of the tussle between Kannada outfits and the MES over a border dispute that dates back to 1957.

Leaning on a wooden chair, Ashok Chandargi crunches numbers. In a photo hanging on the wall, a young Basavaraj Bommai is seen waiting to greet George Fernandez along with Chandargi. The man on the chair was one of the leaders of the Kannada movement that helped change the political landscape of the district, which was once dominated by the Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti (MES).

Karnataka is set to go to election on May 10.

But ahead of the upcoming assembly elections on May 10, he is concerned.

“It is like the water receding before the big waves come. There are always signs,” he said. “Every year, there will be an official MES candidate and one or more rebel candidates. This year, there aren’t any (rebels). This is a sign of them consolidating,” pointed out Chandargi.

Belagavi city is ground zero of the tussle between Kannada outfits and the MES over a border dispute that dates back to 1957 after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines. Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency and has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population. It also laid claim to over 800 Marathi-speaking villages, which are currently part of Karnataka.

At the height of the dispute, the MES controlled the politics in the district. In 1957, the party won seven out of the seven seats and the domination continued until the 1990s, when the MES had at least five MLAs from the district.

MES’s political slide

It took a long political campaign by the pro-Kannada organisations to contain MES’s political power, Chandargi said. “Bangarappa, then CM, decided to break the unity of the MES, which was posing problems to the state government on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute,” he said.

The Hidkal water supply scheme was launched to help the city tackle a crippling scarcity. This helped S Bangarappa, chief minister between 1990 and 1992, to win over then mayor Sambhajirao Patil of the MES, who eventually became close to him.

“What kicked off a political change was a decision by an MES mayor Sambaji Patil to invite chief minister Bangarappa to Belagavi in 1990. Until then, everyone chief minister faced black flags, but he received a big welcome from the mayor,” Chandargi said. “This resulted in the Marathi community announcing a social boycott of Patil, but it kicked off a chain of events.”

It eventually resulted in six MES councillors along with Patil cross-voting in the municipal election in 1992 that saw Siddangouda Patil as the first Kannada-speaking mayor of the city. The change resulted in several leaders of the MES being poached by the Janata Party and the Congress. In 1999, the MES failed to win a single seat in the local body election, added Chandargi.

Marathi vote bank crucial

With the border dispute being heard in the Supreme Court, the MES is regrouping. The Supreme Court on April 17 adjourned the hearing on the state of Maharashtra’s plea in a border row with Karnataka, as justice Aravind Kumar recused himself.

“Both parties want the Marathi votes because if Muslims join hands with Marathis, the Congress will win, and if they go with the Lingayats, it will help the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Chandargi said. “Because of this, local leaders are not taking on the MES.”

He cited Belagavi North constituency as a case in point. “When Firoz Sait (of the Congress) came to power, Muslims and Lingayats had voted on one side. For the first time, the BJP has fielded a Lingayat candidate after seven Lingayat organisations pressurised the government. Now the votes are split,” Chandargi said.

“Muslims are rallying behind the Congress candidate, while Lingayats are rallying behind the Lingayat candidate,” he added. “That means if the MES consolidates, they have a chance.”

The BJP denying the ticket to a Marathi candidate in the constituency has led to further fears of consolidation of votes. Belagavi North MLA Anil Benake was replaced by Ravi Patil, a Lingayat leader. Benake, who earlier tried to get back the seat, has agreed to support the party candidate, but said it could have an effect on the Marathi votes.

“Because our candidate ( Ravi Patil) is new, we worry that some Marathi voters may look at the MES as an option. In the last election, they supported the BJP because the candidate was a Marathi, so we are reaching out to them,” Benake said. “But we are appealing to their Hindu sentiments. In the past, they have joined hands with the BJP because we stand for the cause of Hindutva.”

Politics to preserve culture

For the Marathi community, the election is a means to further their demand for merging with Maharashtra. The Marathi community, which accounted for 51% of the population in the 1961 census, is now reduced to 38%, according to the 2011 census, which means their political influence in the region has reduced.

Maloji Ashtekr, once a leader of the Marathi movement and mayor of the corporation between 1985 and 1986, now lives a quiet life in Kangral Galli, a Marathi-populated area in the city. “Are we making such an outrageous demand? In order to preserve our culture and language, we want to be integrated into Maharashtra,” Ashtekr said. “We demand it because we are denied our linguist rights here.”

Dusting a book taken from a shelf, he said the architect of the India Constitution agreed with this. He quoted from BR Ambedkar’s “Thoughts on Linguistic States”, which says that the border decision was unjust.

Ashtekr, however, agreed that the newer generation doesn’t have the same zeal for the Marathi cause, blaming it on the education system enforced by the Karnataka government. “To give you a context, the first Marathi school came up in 1826 in Hubli-Dharwad. In Belgaum, the first Marathi school was established in 1835 and the Kannada school came in 1938. So the education system in both languages existed for several years. However, in 1992, Karnataka made Kannada mandatory,” he said.

Unlike the generation who went to school before 1992, the generation that came is better integrated into Kannada culture. “When your primary education takes place in Kannada, the emotion towards Marathi changes,” Ashtekr said. “This was one of the reasons why our youngsters moved to the BJP and other parties.”

MES strategy

The Marathi community is more united than ever, claimed MES spokesperson Vikas Kalghatgi. “What helped us were some local issues. There were proposals to build a ring road and another project to construct a bypass, which would have affected several Marathi businesses. We were able to able to create a movement around the issues and bring the Marathi votes together,” he said. “Also, the recent Supreme Court hearing has also revived the energy of our demand for joining Maharashtra.”

Confirming the fears of Kannada leaders like Chandargi, Kalghatgi said there is an attempt to politically reorganise the MES’s strategy. “We held several meetings to ensure that no one contests against the MES candidate and split the votes. We are united this time,” he said. “We have candidates in six constituencies, and in most of the constituencies, we have a large Marathi population.”