Drawing attention away from development and corruption issues that have dogged Karnataka in recent months, two long simmering plots have been pushed into the forefront of politics in the state. Both issues relate to Kannada pride. The first is a five decade-old border dispute with Maharashtra over the northern district of Belgaum and its Marathi-speaking regions. The second is the question of using English over Kannada as a medium of instruction in state schools. The timing of the invocation of the Kannada pride involved in both issues is questionable, especially given the embattled nature of the present JDS-BJP coalition government.

The border dispute is at present before Supreme Court, through a Maharashtra government petition against the 1967 Mahajan Commission Report. The Mahajan Commission had recommended the transfer of 264 disputed villages in Karnataka to Maharashtra and 247 disputed villages in Maharashtra to Karnataka. The commission, however, rejected Maharashtra’s claim to Belgaum city. This September, with legal processes in the dispute gathering steam, the Karnataka government, often accused of neglecting Belgaum, took an unprecedented step to show solidarity with the northern district. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, shrugging off a series of corruption charges against his government and egged on by chauvinists, got a historic four-day legislature session convened in Belgaum city on September 25.

It was the first time a Karnataka legislature session had moved out of the confines of the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore. Despite the waste of over Rs 10 crore on the travelling legislature, the move has been widely appreciated in political circles as a masterstroke.

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