Border dispute resolution efforts started with 'weak mindset': Shinde

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday told the Legislative Council said that the state's attempt to resolve the border dispute with Karnataka started with a "weak mindset" as the resolution tabled by first CM Yashwantrao Chavan demanding merger of Marathi-speaking villages from the neighbouring state did not specify the deadline for it.

Shinde's statement appears to be in sync with the Bharatiya Janta Party's (BJP) stand, which has been blaming the previous state governments for failing to resolve that the border dispute with Karnataka in the last six decades.

Speaking in the Upper House of the state legislature, CM Shinde said, "The first resolution in Maharashtra Assembly was tabled by the then chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan demanding that Belgaum (Belagavi), Karwar and other villages be merged with Maharashtra. In his resolution, Chavan did not specify the deadline to resolve the issue. Maharashtra's struggle for resolving the border dispute started with such a weak mindset."

"Chavan did mention that he want to have a solution based on justice and through talks, but he also mentioned that he wants time to solve the problem," Shinde added.

The BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, have been time and again saying that the previous governments, including those led by the Congress, failed to resolve the border dispute with Karnataka. Notably, the BJP was in power in the state with the Shiv Sena during 1995-99 and later from 2014 to 2019. Currently, the party is sharing power with the Shinde-led Sena faction since June end this year.

Shinde also assured the House that all sorts of legal aid would be given to the Marathi-speaking people living in the disputed areas of Karnataka.

"The state government will provide lawyers to the people living in the disputed area to fight the cases which were registered against them while raising demand for merger of their villages with Maharashtra," he said.

The chief minister also condemned the statements made by the Karnataka minister C N Ashwatha Narayan and legislator Laxman Savadi that the Centre should declare Mumbai as a Union Territory. Shinde said that the state government will send a memorandum to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Karnataka Government conveying the state government's strong protest.