Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday congratulated the Shinde-fadnavis government for the passage of resolution on border issue but said that the issue of linguistic oppression of Marathi speaking people from border area by the Karnataka government remained unanswered in the resolution.
He reiterated his demand that the Centre should declare the disputed area (Karnataka occupied Maharashtra) as the union territory till the Supreme Court decides the matter. Mr Thackeray’s call came even though it was not figured in the resolution which was passed unanimously in both the houses of the legislature.
"I had said yesterday that until the Supreme Court's verdict, the entire Karnataka-occupied Maharashtra should be declared as the union territory. However, the Supreme Court in 2008 had said that it can not be declared. The point is that this was fine until 2008. But then the Supreme Court ordered to keep the situation as it was.
"However, that order is not implemented in Karnataka. Very aggressively, the Karnataka government is taking one step at a time and eventually, Maharashtra will behave calmly, will stand strong but the Marathi imprint will be erased before our eyes,’’ said Thackeray at the Vidhan Bhavan premises.
He demanded that the state government should file a review petition in the apex court so that Maharashtra's imprint is not erased. ‘’The petition should urge the declaration of the disputed area as the union territory till the Supreme Court gives its verdict,’’ he said.
‘’We all know that the current Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute has once again been fueled by Karnataka and even after the Union Home Minister held a meeting with the Chief Ministers of both the states and our Deputy Chief Minister.
"In the resolution the Karnataka government said that they will not give even an inch of land to Maharashtra. Such an aggressive and bold decision was made. Thereafter, the Maharashtra government moved a resolution and it was passed. I congratulate the government, I thank them, that at least they have approved the resolution today that we stand firmly with the Marathi speaking people in the border areas, obviously we supported it,’’ said Thackeray.
He added that ‘’We are all of the opinion that whatever is in the interest of Maharashtra, there should be no reason for disagreement and therefore we have unanimously supported it. "
‘’What is said in this resolution is that some facilities will be provided to the citizens there. Now that needs some clarity. It is a good point in the resolution that the Marathi speaking people from the border area will benefit with these initiatives.
"However, the underlying issue is not one of schemes but of linguistic oppression. What are we going to do about linguistic oppression?’’ he asked.
