The Belgaum Word War

An exasperating Kannada-Marathi divide comes centrestage again

What do you do when your city’s mayor acts like a double agent for a neighbouring state? Belgaum, in Karnataka, is facing that question, and not for the first time. A function was arranged on 1 November to celebrate Karnataka State Formation Day. But the mayor, Banda Balekundri, decided to participate in a Black Day rally organised by a pro-Marathi party instead. More recently, he blocked a resolution in the civic body congratulating a Jnanpith awardee litterateur, Chandrashekhar Khambar, for endorsing Kannada medium education.

These incidents have again brought centrestage Maharashtra’s demand to include within its borders Belgaum city and other villages with a Marathi-speaking majority. Karnataka’s Law Minister Suresh Kumar has now issued a notice to the civic body, which will have to reply within a fortnight, failing which he has warned the body will be dissolved under the Karnataka Municipal Act. “The notices were issued after the corporation’s commissioner issued a report confirming the developments,’’ he says.

Ever present to add fuel to a Marathi fire was Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray with a few choice words of his own. He reprimanded Khambar in his Sena mouthpiece, Saamna, and even asked for the award to be withdrawn. He advised Khambar to remember that people from Karnataka were running the eatery industry in Maharashtra without objections from any quarter.

The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi, a quasi political force that is losing its support base in Belgaum district, has been at the forefront of the pro-Marathi agitation, despite the Mahajan Commission having once settled the issue.

The commission had recommended an exchange of some villages while rejecting Maharashtra’s claim to Belgaum city. This report has been rejected by Maharashtra, and a succession of its chief ministers have taken it up with New Delhi. Meanwhile, Karnataka has started the construction of a legislature complex in Belgaum.

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Anil Budur Lulla