After the Maharashtra government cancelled the visit of its two ministers to Karnataka’s Belagavi in the backdrop of the simmering tensions over the border dispute, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti slammed the government for “insulting the Marathi community in Karnataka”.
Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai were scheduled to meet the MES activists in Belagavi on Tuesday to hold talks regarding the border issue.
Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s Belagavi city block president Prakash Shirolkar said: “Maharashtra is the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj… and is known for bravery. However, Eknath Shinde and BJP-led state government spoiled this image worldwide by cancelling the ministers visit”.
“We the Marathis in Belagavi are feeling insulted over this act of Maharashtra. We are losing our only hope in this 65-year-border dispute in which dozens sacrificed their lives,” he said.
“Why was the tour of the ministers scheduled on December 3 postponed to 6 and later again pushed ahead,” he asked. “Didn’t they know that it was BR Ambedkar’s jayanthi? Its nothing but escaping tactics. What else can you expect from the coward government,” Shirolkar said.
Earlier, Maharashtra minister Shambhuraje Desai said that the visit was not cancelled but just postponed “to avoid disturbance to the programmes arranged in Belagavi on the eve of Ambedkar Mahaparinirwan Diwas”. “As per the government decision we didn’t visit…but will soon meet the Marathis in Belagavi and table their demand and grievances before Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
Meanwhile, MES also expressed displeasure over the cancellation of the ministers visit while terming the government’s reason for the same as “silly”.
“Did Maharashtra government not know the day of Ambedkar’s death anniversary…they had chosen the date with an intention to cancel the visit,” MES said.
Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti Deepak Dalavi chief alleged: “Marathis in Karnataka are being forced to learn Kannada by making the language compulsory in administrative work. Documents are being given only in Kannada language which Marathis won’t understand. Despite the instructions from the linguistic minority department, minorities including Marathis are not given documents in their language”.
Karnataka Rakshana Vedike president T A Narayana Gowda meanwhile criticised the state government for banning the entry of the outfit activists . “We were going to encourage the Kannadigas who were attacked by the Marathis and the police”.
“It is unfortunate that Kannadigas are not being given protection in their own land and we too are being prevented from consoling our people. No place across the country has such sorry state of affairs like Kannadigas in Karnataka,” he said.
He warned the state government against “pleasing anti-state people like Marathis” and considering the Kannadigas in Belagavi as “second division people”.
“The state government’s act of pleasing anti-state people like Marathis and considering the Kannadigas in Belagavi as second division people will prove costly in the days to come as we will take this negligence seriously”.