Leaders of the City and Taluk units of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) on Friday separately met Deputy Commissioner N. Jayaram and Police Commissioner T.G. Krishna Bhat, protesting against police officials allegedly arresting and harassing MES workers for participating in the MES-organised ‘black day’ rally on the occasion of Karnataka Rajyotsava on Tuesday.
They alleged that the police was indiscriminately arresting Marathi youth and harassing them. Maloji Rao Ashtekar, General Secretary of MES-Central Committee, MES Belagavi taluk president and former MLA Manohar Kinekar, and senior leader Deepak Dalvi led the protest.
However, both Mr. Jayaram and Mr.Bhat disagreed with the MES leaders stating that the police was arresting only those who indulged in unlawful activities and violence. The police had video-graphed all happenings during the rally, based on which it was taking action as per the law.
In the meanwhile, the city police arrested MES worker Ratnaprasad Pawar, a resident of Chavat galli in the city, for brandishing a gun during the rally and registered a case against him in Market Police Station. He is among the 22 youths arrested on charges of violence, harming peace and harmony, etc. during the rally since last evening, even as the police was questioning some more MES workers.
‘Not anti-national’
Later, speaking to the media, Mr. Ashtekar reiterated that MES was not an anti-national organisation or one indulging in any activity against the country to be banned, as being demanded by some organisations.
He said B.R. Ambedkar had written in his book ‘Thoughts on Linguistic States’ that several Marathi speaking areas along the boundary had been wrongly included in non-Marathi speaking areas. In his book, under the title ‘Reclamation of Lost Territory’, Dr. Ambedkar raised various issues, essentially in reaction to the report of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC), 1956, wherein he has observed that “While creating Linguistic Provinces the Commission has given over Marathi-speaking areas to non Marathi-speaking areas’. He further noted that “the number of such excluded areas included Belgaum Taluka with the City of Belgaum, Khanapur Taluka, Chikori (read Chikkodi) Taluka including Nippani, and Karwar Taluka.”
Mr. Ashtekar said the MES has been fighting within the frame work of the Constitution, demanding that Marathi speaking people should be included in their concerned linguistic State.
