By Shankar Raj*
Bengaluru: Karnataka’s border dispute with Maharashtra has heated up again with the state’s Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai sending out a tough message that there was no question of letting go even an inch of Karnataka’s border to the neighbouring state and if Kannadigas in parts of Maharashtra wish to join the state and pass resolutions in this regard, his government was ready for it.
His Cabinet colleague KS Eshwarappa took the decibel levels higher saying that the miscreants who vandalised the statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna and burnt the Kannada flag must be shot dead. “The act of vandalising the statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna and burning the Kannada flag is highly condemnable and the miscreants should be tracked and shot dead,” he said.
It is suspected that pro-Marathi activists were behind defacing the statues.
Earlier, tension prevailed in Belagavi after a statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna was defaced, days after a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji was vandalised in Bengaluru and the Kannada flag was burnt in Kolhapur in Maharashtra. The incidents have reignited the dispute over the border district of Belagavi, which Maharashtra claims should belong to it.
Also read: Tension erupts in Belagavi over Karnataka-Maharashtra border row
On Monday December 20, 2021, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution condemning the acts of vandalism and burning the Kannada flag, and said that such acts would be considered as seditious. The CM, who moved the resolution, said that strict action would be taken against the miscreants, and that they would be booked under the Goondas Act.
“It is a clear stand of the government that Mahajan report is final on the border issue, still some individuals and organisations are repeatedly causing disturbance to peace and it is condemnable. This House unanimously condemns such acts and decides to punish the miscreants involved in it,” Bommai said.
He also announced that a statue of freedom fighters and icons Kittur Chennamma and Sangolli Rayanna will be installed at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi. “It is a clear stand of the government that Mahajan report is final on the border issue, still some individuals and organisations are repeatedly causing disturbance to peace and it is condemnable. This House unanimously condemns such acts and decides to punish the miscreants involved in it,” CM Bommai said.
The recent incidents of a Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) leader being smeared with ink, burning of Karnataka flag in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, and the defacement of Chatrapati Shivaji and Sangolli Rayanna statues had raised tempers in the border district of Belagavi, which Maharashtra claims should belong to it.
