Centre Rubbing It The Wrong Way

When troubles follow you, they do so in a series. The Ashok Chavan government, already facing flak for its poor representation of Best of 5 admission policy before the Bombay High Court, may again be in the line of fire for being caught sleeping over the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue.

The Central government off-late filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court that mentions Belgaum, having Marathi-speaking populace largely, cannot be included in Maharashtra. Considering both Congress and NCP are enjoying power in Delhi and Mumbai as well, it would be foolish to believe that leaders of the two parties from Maharashtra were kept in dark by Centre before taking a biased stand that is also against policies of the Provincial Linguistic Commission, which insisted formation of states on the basis of languages.

The claims by NCP that its chief Sharad Pawar, considered to be the most influential leader from the state in Centre, was clueless about such a stance by the Centre therefore comes across as a ridiculous one and equally unfortunate. However, the Chavan cabinet alone cannot be held responsible for not taking a firm stand over the issue, as the problem has not been handled properly by any of the CM's predecessor or political outfits in that case.

If those in power are putting on a hopeless show, the ones in opposition parties are not lagging far behind. When in NDA government, the Shiv Sena, which is trying to gherao the governments over the issue now, was not as aggressive towards the sentiments of the Marathis in Karnataka as today. The main opposition party BJP, led by a Maharashtraian, is tight-lipped over the issue and instead indulging in trivial issues like banning release of a book on King Shivaji penned down by James Lane.

As mentioned earlier, states were created on the basis of language spoken mostly in the region. However, the Central government's statement has trampled very core of the policy. From political point of view, the move by the union government, headed by Congress mainly, comes across as an effort by the Sonia Gandhi-led party to win its lost ground in the southern state, which is ruled by BJP currently.

With both the main ruling and opposition parties not likely to support the long standing demands of the Marathis there, it appears that it is going to be a battle to be fought lonely by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, putting up a brave front over the issue for more than 50 years now against the suppressive tactics used by all Karnataka governments over the half century.

P.S.: Guess what if the SC turns out to be a Samaritan for the Karnataka-based Marathis. Mad race amongst political outfits will be on to take credit for the same. We would prefer to see the ugly scene as well if that means inclusion of Belgaum and other regions in Maharashtra for the sake of Marathis residing in Karnataka. It is good to be chauvinistic some times, isn't it?