A new government has just taken charge in the neighbouring State of Maharashtra. Consequently, it is an appropriate time for Karnataka to hold a session of the legislature in the border city of Belgaum (now renamed Belagavi) to drive home the point that little purpose will be served in seeking to reopen the issue that was put on the backburner nearly five decades ago. Rechristening Belgaum as Belagavi is in itself aimed at identifying the border district with a distinct Kannada flavour.
Differences apart, it is imperative for all political parties and leaders here to put up a united front similar to the stance of the political parties in the neighbouring State. The formation of a government by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, and with the same party ruling in the Centre and also focussing on regaining its lost ground here will augur well for Karnataka, in terms of the border dispute which may be given a quiet burial.
Contrary to the charges being levelled against the incumbent government that it is keen to shy away from holding the legislature session at Belgaum, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has conveyed to The Hindu that a 10-day session will be held in the border city commencing from the first fortnight of December. It should be noted that a nearly Rs. 400-crore granite structure — the Suvarna Soudha — has been constructed at Belgaum primarily to hold the legislature session to take stock of matters of regional importance.
That a session at Belgaum is all the more imperative at the present juncture, irrespective of the threat by the sugarcane growers that they will stall the proceedings similar to what happened during the session of the last calendar year, is reminiscent of the decision taken by the coalition government of H.D. Kumaraswamy in September 2006, when it decided to organise the Belgaum session of the legislature despite the opposition raised by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES).
The border city of Belgaum became an integral part of Karnataka after the reorganisation of States in 1956, and this was further reinforced a decade later by the Mehr Chand Mahajan Commission, constituted by the Union government on the border dispute among the States of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. It is another matter that the findings of the Mahajan Commission submitted to then Union government in 1967 is yet to be tabled in Parliament.
The five-day session held in 2006 (soon after a petition was filed by the State of Maharashtra in the Supreme Court ) was the first to be held outside the State capital, Bangalore, and the two houses of the legislature unanimously adopted a resolution, endorsing the Mahajan Commission report which declared Belgaum as an integral part of Karnataka. It was for the fifth time that such a resolution was passed by the State legislature, the first being in 1967 when the late S. Nijalingappa was the Chief Minister. The Kumaraswamy government had also stated that Belgaum would be made Karnataka’s second State capital although nothing much has been heard after that. The ensuing session will be the fifth to be held in Belgaum.
