Mumbai Two controversial issues that have been brewing in Maharashtra over the last few weeks—the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute violence and the allegedly derogatory remarks made against Chhatrapati Shivaji by Maharashtra governor B S Koshyari and other BJP leaders—reached the doorstep of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday.
While BJP MP Udayanaraje Bhosale met Modi and demanded immediate action against Koshyari for his remarks, a delegation of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) MPs met Shah, seeking his intervention in both matters. The Union home minister is expected to meet the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Karnataka on December 14 to sort out the issue of the ongoing violent protests and brewing tension in the border areas.
The decades-old border dispute flared up after Karnataka chief minister Basavraj Bommai declared two weeks ago that his government was seriously considering including 40 villages from the Jat tehsil of Sangli in his state. Days later, tension in the border areas escalated after state transport buses from Maharashtra were torched by organisations in Karnataka. The dispute has cropped up just before the expected Supreme Court hearing of the petition filed by the Maharashtra government in 2004 in which it has demanded the inclusion of 865 Marathi-speaking Karnataka villages in Maharashtra.
NCP MP Supriya Sule led the delegation of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena MPs which met Amit Shah on Friday. “We discussed all the issues, including the provocative statements made by Bommai and the atrocities inflicted on people in the border areas of Maharashtra,” she said. “We also told him about the derogatory remarks against Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by ‘loudmouth’ leaders of the BJP. He gave us a patient hearing and we are hopeful of an amicable solution on the border issue.”
The meeting saw a brief flare-up between MPs from the two parties that had once comprised the original Shiv Sena. Dhairyasheel Mane and Shrirang Barne of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena (BSS) had been invited by Sule to the meeting but when they reached the venue, Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs raised objections, leading to the MPs walking out. “We have been raising our voices in Parliament for the last two days but the Shinde camp opted to keep mum on the issue,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant. “They had no business coming to the meeting.”
BJP MP Udayanraje Bhosale, who met Modi regarding the allegedly derogatory remarks made by Koshyari, said he had earlier written a letter to the President of India, requesting him to recall the governor. “The letter was sent to the central government by Rashtrapati Bhavan, and action should have been taken against Koshyari by now,” he said. “The delay is unfortunate but I think there is probably a certain procedure to follow on account of which it may be taking time.” Bhosale, however, acquitted the BJP of all responsibility. “The party cannot be held responsible, as what the governor said was in his individual capacity,” he averred.
Sule, on her part, taunted Bhosale for not raising the dispute issue with the PM during the meeting. “It is unfortunate that BJP leaders have not been talking about the border dispute,” she said. “It should have been raised by leaders from all parties, but unfortunately Maharashtra’s ruling parties are silent on it. I had demanded a joint meeting by the chief minister and deputy chief minister with Opposition leaders on the issue, but the ruling parties paid no heed.”
