Earlier this month, the Maharashtra government announced the inclusion of 865 border villages of Karnataka in the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule health scheme. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shindhe said it would benefit both Marathi and Kannada speakers in these Karnataka villages. However, three days later, when the Maharashtra government released the application form for the scheme, it made the applicants testify that they were Marathi speakers from Karnataka.
Kannada organisations called it a “clandestine attempt” by Maharashtra to collect evidence for its claim that a large number of Marathi speakers reside in Belagavi and other border districts.
Tit-for-tat moves
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai spoke against the move and threatened that if Maharashtra did not stop it, Karnataka would be constrained to extend benefits of its social security schemes to Kannada speakers in Maharashtra.
At that point, it seemed as if the language issue would be the primal focus of the Assembly election in these parts. But now, language seems to have faded into oblivion even for a language-centric party like Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), and other outfits.
“A simple reason is that all national parties want Maratha votes. No political leader from Belagavi is concerned about the identity issue,” said Srinivas Talukar, a Kannada activist fighting polls as the JD(S) candidate from Belagavi South.
Statue drama
Rajkumar Kamble, Kannada Horata Samiti leader, points to the attempts by MLAs such as Lakshmi Hebbalkar (Congress) and Ramesh Jarkiholi (BJP) to claim credit for unveiling the Chatrapati Shivaji statue at Rajhamsgad fort in Yallur village in Belagavi rural constituency.
While Ms. Hebbalkar claimed it was a personal achievement, Mr. Jarkiholi argued it was a government project. In the end, the statue was inaugurated twice in a week, underlining how the leaders are competing to show that they are more pro-Maratha than others. Mr. Kamble accused politicians of trying to appease the Marathi vote bank.
“Political parties and leaders in Belagavi are masters of doublespeak. Their opinions about the language issue are different during elections and at other times,’‘ said Ashok Chandaragi, convenor of Kannada associations in Belagavi district.
This, he says, also reflects a larger shift - the erosion of language as a politically significant narrative. “At one time, MES had five MLAs in Belagavi district. But now there are none. Its last MLA was elected in 2013. Its strength has reduced even in the Belagavi City Corporation where it held an upper hand for decades,’‘ he said. MES has this time fielded four candidates in the district.
Running out of steam
Writer and political analyst D.S. Chougale also feels that language as an electoral issue in Belagavi has run out of steam. “Language being a non-issue in this election may be good for Belagavi. But it is being replaced by communal issues, which have higher polarisation potential,’‘ he said.
According to Prof. Chougale, infighting among MES leaders, lack of focus on development-related issues and increased awareness among younger Marathi speakers about the futility of another reorganisation of States are the reasons for the decline of the party, and the cause it espouses. “The shift of votes of Maratha youth has led to the rise of the BJP in Belagavi and other border districts,’‘ he said.
