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What Rajiv Gandhi told Hegde

Staff Correspondent

Belgaum: This is what is contained in a letter written by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to then Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde on July 2, 1986 (Correspondence between the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister and Union Ministers, Vol. IX, Aug. 1986, Government of Karnataka).

Dear Shri Hegde,

I find I have not replied to your letter of 28th May in which you had referred to the resolution adopted by the State Cabinet on the Belgaum issue.

Commissions are appointed to go into difficult problems in order that the nation may have the benefit of an in-depth and dispassionate study. Reports of commissions must, therefore, be treated with deference. This is the point I made when replying to a question by a few journalists when I went for a meeting in the office of our party on May 27. I did not allude to any particular award.

If the findings of commissions, which are appointed in response to public demand, are not respected, an important instrument of conflict resolution will become blunted. At the same time, it would not be fair to expect commissions to solve everything. They cannot be a substitute for the processes of discussion and give and take, which are the essence of the spirit of democracy.

The Karnataka-Maharashtra dispute has been long drawn out. Subsequent to the Mahajan Award, some proposals were placed before Parliament, which cannot be lost sight of. It would be ideal for the two States to get together and sort things out.

Yours sincerely,

Rajiv Gandhi

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