Bengaluru (The Hawk): Siddaramaiah, a former chief minister and leader of the opposition in the Karnataka legislature, questioned whether the ruling parties in Karnataka and Maharashtra were to blame for the controversy even as Belagavi appeared to be limping back to normalcy.
The BJP is in charge in both of these states. According to Siddaramaiah, the two governments may have spoken to one another and are causing the current situation.
Siddaramaiah expressed the opinion that, despite the Mahajan Commission report having already found a solution to the border dispute between the two states, Maharashtra has continued to pursue political objectives by pursuing the issue.
Siddaramaiah said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai should speak with the Prime Minister about cases of stone-throwing and damage to Karnataka buses in Maharashtra.
The BJP's strategy is to let a dispute to fester and then exploit it for political purposes. They have sat back and allowed the situation to heat up rather than trying to resolve it via dialogue. People are suffering since there is no longer any transport between the two states. The state government need to assist in diffusing the situation, he said.
Bommai was requested by Siddaramaiah to offer safety to Kannadigas in Maharashtra who were reportedly being persecuted by local officials.
He insisted that there could be no compromise with regard to the state's water and border concerns.
"The current Maharashtra administration has petitioned the Supreme Court, requesting Belagavi. Then Maharashtra had also made a similar appeal while I was chief minister. However, we had maintained that the case was unconvincing. According to Siddaramaiah, the current Karnataka administration should vigorously pursue the case.
(Inputs from Agencies)
