Karnataka - Belgaum   

MES for plebiscite on Belgaum

Staff Correspondent

Whatever the outcome, party says it will accept the verdict of the people

Belgaum: The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) has expressed its willingness to accept the results of a plebiscite on the question of Belgaum.

Whatever the outcome of the democratic exercise, it will welcome the "verdict of the people." But it does not believe that the Government of Karnataka will agree to hold a plebiscite to settle the question of Belgaum once and for all.

In the first ever press conference in several years that was open to the non-Marathi press, MES leaders, including legislators Manohar Kinekar and Digamber Patil, the former Mayor Maloji Rao Ashtekar, the former legislators Narayanrao Tarale and V.Y. Chavan, MES working president (Belgaum city) Deepak Dalvi and the former Mayor Vijay Pandurang More spoke to presspersons here on Thursday.

Rajiv Gandhi's letter

Mr. Ashtekar referred to a letter written by the then Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi, to the then Chief Minister, the late Ramakrishna Hegde on July 2, 1986 in support of the MES argument that a boundary dispute existed and that the Mahajan Commission Report was not the final word on the dispute (see box).

The leaders said the MES would continue with its non-violent and democratic struggle for the merger of Belgaum with Maharashtra even if Karnataka made Belgaum the capital of the State, let alone the second capital

Mr. Kinekar said the ongoing legislature session in Belgaum would not help the Government in any way. He accused Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of not being aware of the details of the Mahajan Report and making fanciful statements. The MES had never demanded the transfer of Belgaum district to Maharashtra, he said. It wanted only Belgaum city and 99 villages in Belgaum taluk, adjoining Maharashtra, to be merged with that State. The session was being held only to draw cheap publicity, he said, Mr. Kinekar said.

On the Chief Minister's statement that the saffron flag hoisted on the Belgaum City Corporation building would be removed, Mr. Tarale said the flag had been hoisted under the Flag Code after it was approved by the official concerned in 1958. If the Government removed it, another one would be hoisted, he said.Mr. Dalvi said the flag was a symbol of sacrifice.

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