- The Indian political class is quite adept at fanning certain tricky issues which inherently lead to law and order troubles keeping the administration machinery on tenterhooks. Especially, whenever any crucial elections are nearby, trust our political leaders to leave no stone unturned in whipping up emotions. You know, emotive issues always ensure the polarization of society disrupting the very harmony essential for a dignified existence. Divisive politics harping on religion, caste, creed, class, and language is quite a common phenomenon around the country. No wonder, vote bank politics has been entrenched so deeply here that everything gets weighed through the prism of caste equations alone.
PC: Team Leverage Edu
- What is happening between Karnataka and Maharashtra over the border issue not only corresponds to the matter discussed above but mirrors the modus operandi adopted by politicians to stay in news. Parochial considerations always hold sway over everything else and what is being witnessed presently over the raging border issue between the two neighbours reflects this. A potential flashpoint in the long-running boundary dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka was averted recently when the scheduled visit of two ministers in the Maharashtra government to Belagavi was called off. Fishing in troubled waters is beneficial, you see. Unfortunately, this will not end the disruption endured by people in the area.
- The citizens are already facing the heat. Prohibitory orders were imposed, public transport was disrupted, and the atmosphere remains charged. The immediate trigger for this round of flare-ups is the conduct of senior functionaries in both governments and organisations with a stake in the issue. For the uninitiated, the dispute goes back to the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines in the 1950s. Multilingual regions were demarcated and Maharashtra’s governments have been unsatisfied with the allocation of Belagavi to Karnataka. The dispute currently is in the Supreme Court. Thus, no amount of grandstanding by politicians on both sides is going to result in redrawing borders. Nonetheless, the border issue pesters on.
PC: S. Subhashini
- Border areas have many inhabitants speaking both languages even as politicians are ostensibly fighting the cause of speakers of one language. Mind you, India does need a more active national interstate council to manage tensions that arise out of disagreements over maps. Sadly, an inactive council cannot condone the conduct of senior politicians as heated rhetoric tends to cause collateral damage. The political class should set aside differences to foster interstate harmony rather than rake up unyielding border issues. Indeed, one of India’s strengths is the extent of multilingualism even when internal borders have been determined largely on a linguistic basis. There’s a strong case here for the politicians to learn from common Indians.
