#dnaEdit: Territorial fight

The decades-old border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka has resurfaced yet again. The importance of the timing of the most recent conflagration in Belgaum district — barely three months before assembly elections in Maharashtra — is hard to miss. It has the potential of becoming a rallying cry as the Shiv Sena and the MNS — the so-called custodians of marathi manoos — are going to turn the sons-of-the-soil issue into a poll plank. Thriving on rabble-rousing and violence, for these regional parties the police lathicharge in the border town on Sunday offers an opportunity to manipulate public emotions and whip up a frenzy.

Post Independence, religious and linguistic divides have emerged as the two most widespread polarising factors and the primary causes of bloodletting. In some cases it is kept alive for years.  The earliest signs of the ongoing feud can be traced back to 1956 when Belgaum was included in the new state of Mysore. The territorial dispute has instigated sporadic battles between the Marathi-speaking populace and the Kannadigas with the rabid elements on both sides refusing to relent. The muscle-flexing of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) and the home-grown Kannada Rakshana Vedike, instigated by politicians, have become a defining feature of a long-drawn out struggle. 

As of now, there are no signs of reconciliation. The worst part is how retaliatory justice has vitiated the environment. Bal Thackeray’s forceful assertion that Kannadigas in Maharashtra would not be spared if even one Maharashtrian is beaten up in Karnataka finds resonance in Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut’s response to the recent round of violence.

Today, the political football played between the Shiv Sena and the BJP on one side and the MNS on the other puts the lives of the common people in danger. The BJP, which had once championed Karnataka’s claim in an affidavit to the Supreme Court in a case filed by Maharahtra challenging the States Reorganisation Act 1956, finds itself in an unenvious position, primarily because of its alliance with the Shiv Sena.

Last year Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan had declared that both states would abide by the Supreme Court verdict. Yet intermittent acts of violence give enough reasons to doubt that an apex court judgment would settle matters once and for all.

The official version of the lathicharge incident where the police claimed they had no option but to beat up stone-pelting protestors has been challenged by the aggrieved. They felt the police had acted brutally without provocation. In Yellur, the small village with a population of 18,000 at the centre of violence, life has virtually come to a standstill. Six people have been booked for rioting and causing hurt to the police force. In Maharashtra, security has been beefed up in the apprehension that innocent Kannadigas could be made targets.

The moot point is why resort to violence when it can never bring about a resolution. Kannadigas and Maharashtrians have co-existed peacefully in Belgaum, learning each other’s language and customs, working together and cementing their bonds with inter-community marriages. Belgaum’s cosmopolitanism has been a matter of pride for its people. If violence rips apart this social and cultural fabric, it’s the people who stand to lose everything they have built brick-by-brick. They must stand up resolutely for peace, and thwart the cunning devices of politicians who wish to gain political mileage from a divided house.