Belgaum, I weep for you!

Belgaum, a lovely cantonment town on the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra has currently shot into the limelight for all the wrong reasons. The ineffective Chief Minister of Maharashtra has made a call for this hamlet to be included in his state- a game of one upmanship with the Shiv Sena who'd earlier raised the pitch on the issue.

Two clarifications are in order at this juncture. I'd stated that Ashok Chavan, the CM is ineffective due to the following reasons;-

(a) He'd silently watched the whole of Maharashtra burning, for days, thanks to the vandalism perpetrated by the Shiv Sena goons to prevent the release of the movie `My name is Khan'.

(b) He behaved like a rat when he distanced himself from the organizational responsibilities, after sharing the dais with Amitabh Bachhan, at the opening ceremony of the other half of the Bandra-Worli sea link.

To my mind, he is no leader as he has really not shown any prowess in governance which is what the people of his state want from him. And less said about the goons that masquerade as Shiv Sainiks!

It’d be appropriate to go back into history at this juncture. Years back, many wealthy Maharashtrians had migrated into Belgaum to set up business ventures due to the favourable factors of climate, resources and proximity to their homes. And to now claim that it should be added to the state of Maharashtra just because of a high percentage of Maharashtrians living there, is stretching things a bit too far and twisting history just to gain political mileage. It has already developed into a slugfest between the BJP(ruling Karnataka) and the Congress (ruling Maharashtra) and the central government watches it, with growing inaction. And mind you, none of the young MPs have raised their opinions, so far - isn't it a shame?

I am sure that the common man in Belgaum doesn't care a sausage as to whether he belongs to Maharashtra or Karnataka as he's fully aware that he is an Indian first, always and every time.

My soft corner for Belgaum began in the summer of 1970, when I'd stayed at the premises of the King George school, for ten wonderful days as a member of our school's NCC camp team. I remember our route marches to the surrounding hills and dales and not to forget my first Hindi movie- "Kohara" – at the cantonment's open air theatre.

O Belgaum, I weep for you!