PremiumMaharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday asserted the state government will fight even for an inch of land, amid the simmering boundary dispute with Karnataka
In the midst of a boundary dispute with Karnataka, Maharashtra's deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis declared on Monday that the state government would fight for even an inch of land. Fadnavis stated that the state government will do everything possible to ensure that the Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka receive justice while speaking in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
On Monday, the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute resurfaced during the state Assembly's ongoing winter session, with the opposition calling for a solution.
Notably, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly unanimously approved a resolution on the border dispute with Maharashtra on Thursday, pledging to defend the interests of the southern state and refuse to cede any part of the territory to its neighbour.
The motion by Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, which also denounced the border dispute "created" by Maharashtra, was approved by voice vote.
The issue was brought up on Monday in the Maharashtra Assembly by the leader of the opposition, Ajit Pawar, who questioned why the government had not moved the resolution on the border dispute despite the Business Advisory Committee's decision that a proposal would be made in that regard during the first week of the winter session.
He noted that the resolution-moving proposal was not on Monday's agenda either. Pawar claimed that the statements made by the chief minister of Karnataka "hurt the pride of Maharashtra."
In response, Deputy CM Fadnavis stated that the resolution could not have been introduced last week because the environment was unfavourable. He was supposedly alluding to the suspension of senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil, who was suspended on Thursday for the remainder of the session for his remark against Speaker Rahul Narvekar.
It was not possible to table the resolution in the House because Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was in Delhi for a business event, according to Fadnavis.
He assured the House that on Monday or Tuesday, a resolution regarding the border dispute would be introduced. “We will fight even for an inch. We will do whatever we can for the justice of the Marathi-speaking population in Karnataka," Fadnavis said. He further added that the state government will not budge even a hair on this issue.
The Maharashtra government should raise the matter with the Union Home Ministry, which is headed by the Linguistic Minorities Commission, because the Karnataka chief minister has been using provocative language, according to former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan (Congress).
According to Chavan, the Maharashtra government shouldn't simply stand by while the Karnataka government attempts to muddy the waters.
Bhaskar Jadhav, a member of the Shiv Sena's Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction, charged that the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra were rendered powerless when the Marathi-speaking populace was "ill-treated." In retaliation, Fadnavis asserted that nobody has the guts to render the chief minister and deputy chief minister powerless.
(With inputs from PTI)