Maharashtra tried to incentivise Marathi-medium schools in Karnataka illegally: KBADA chairman
Bengaluru, Dec 2: Karnataka Border Area Development Authority (KBADA) chairman Dr C Somashekhara on Friday said a team from Maharashtra government had started a drive six months ago offering incentives to set up more Marathi-medium schools inside Karnataka in and around Belagavi district.
The campaign came to a halt after the KBADA protested saying that this was unlawful.
"A delegation from Maharashtra had come to the border regions of Karnataka and started a drive by making an offer of more grants and more facilities to those schools which impart education in Marathi," Somashekhara said addressing a press conference on Friday.
He was addressing reporters after releasing a booklet 'Sadhaneya Darshana' (A peek into the achievement) on KBADA completing 12 years in the presence of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
Explaining the activities of KBADA, Somashekhara said the authority was established by the state government in 2010 to protect the interest of Kannadigas in the border regions outside Karnataka. According to him, there are 19 districts outside Karnataka that have a sizeable Kannada-speaking population.
"There are about 980 villages in 63 taluks of 19 districts where Kannadigas are living. The role of our authority is to protect their entity, culture and language. We are also doing the job of instilling confidence among them," Somashekhara said.
In the midst of a border row once again flaring up between Karnataka and Maharashtra over Belagavi, the KBADA chairman said the Maharashtra government's campaign happened six months ago.
"When we got the news that a team had conducted a survey in and around Belagavi and offered more grants to Marathi-medium schools and more incentives to the teachers, we swung into action due to which the campaign stopped," he explained.
Somashekhara said the authority along with some organisations in Belagavi protested saying that the Maharashtra delegation visiting Karnataka and opening more Marathi schools here was unlawful.
"The Maharashtra government had come inside Karnataka to open more Marathi schools in and around Belagavi. A conspiracy was hatched to offer more grants to the schools, incentives to teachers, attractive scholarship to the students and build hostels, which we have stopped," he claimed.
To a query, the retired IAS officer clarified that the team had come on its own and were not invited by the Karnataka government to do such activities.
The Maharashtra government has been demanding that Belagavi should be merged with it on the ground that the district has a sizeable Marathi population. However, the Karnataka government has been opposing it. Recently, the issue regarding Belagavi was heard in the Supreme Court as well.
The KBADA carries out its activities through the district collectors of the respective districts. To oversee the implementation of the schemes launched by the authority, a supervisory body has been set up, its chairman said.
To promote Kannada among children in the border region, KBADA is planning to deposit Rs 5,000 in the joint account of the Kannada medium student and the school. This has been conceptualised to ensure that the student studies in Kannada medium till they complete Class 10, he added.
"The student will study in the same school and will not go to any other medium school. By the time child completes 10th standard, there will be a decent amount in his account. This will attract children towards Kannada. It will benefit students as well as the school. We are planning this scheme," Somashekhara said.
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'One nation, one election' is unconstitutional and impractical: Prashant Bhushan
Nagpur, Dec 24: Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday strongly opposed the idea of 'one nation, one election', calling it as "ridiculous and unconstitutional", and said holding simultaneous polls was impractical in a parliamentary democracy.
He also hailed the recent apex court judgements that gave a stay on lawsuits about reclaiming religious places, especially mosques, and 'bulldozer justice'.
Bhushan spoke at Parwana Oration 2024 organised here on the topic "Whither economic democracy in India' organised by Comrade H L Parwana Memorial Trust.
Answering reporters' query on 'one nation, one election' after his speech, he said, "It is ridiculous and unconstitutional because one cannot have simultaneous polls in parliamentary democracy for the reason that the government depends on enjoying the confidence of the majority in the House."
Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate last week.
"If there is a split in the party or if some people defect, then the government can fall and if the government falls and no other government can be formed then what will you do? Either you impose President's rule for the remaining term and if the central government falls, what do you do? You cannot impose President's rule there. Therefore, you will have to have fresh elections otherwise it is against democracy," he noted.
"Now, they are saying that fresh elections will be only for the remainder of the term. So how is that helping? You are now increasing the number of elections because now you are holding elections only for the remaining two years if say two years are left. This is totally bogus...There is no way this is practical and in my view this is totally unconstitutional," he said.
Equating 'bulldozer justice' with a lawless state of affairs where might is right, the Supreme Court last month laid down pan-India guidelines and said no property should be demolished without a prior show cause notice and the affected must be given 15 days to respond.
Recently, the apex court restrained till further directions the courts in the country from entertaining fresh lawsuits and passing any effective interim or final orders in pending ones seeking to reclaim religious places, especially mosques and dargahs (a Muslim shrine).
Speaking about it, he said, "We have seen that a few good things happened in the Supreme Court. One is the stay on all these suits about mosques being taken over for temples or being investigated as to whether there are temples below that or not."
"They (SC) have said that for the time being, these suits will not proceed. This is a very important development that has taken place," he said.
The other important decision is about ' bulldozer justice', he said.
"They have passed a very good judgement effectively putting a stay on it. They have also passed many judgements regarding the misuse of powers of the Enforcement directorate. ED has become the main instrument of harassing opposition leaders or activists, journalists, etc, wherein anything can be said to be money laundering and therefore ED gets into anything, whatsoever," he said.
Fortunately, in the recent last few months, there have been a number of judgements which have put brakes on the power of the ED, he added.
On a query about Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that 18 per cent GST will be imposed on the margin value of used car sales, Bhushan said it should be scrapped.
"I don't know whether she misunderstood what the scheme is and if this is the scheme it will have to go. It will also struck down in the court," he said.
When asked about Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' statement that pro-urban Naxal organisations supported the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' of Rahul Gandhi, Bhushan said, "That is all absolutely bunk. I mean they call any dissenter urban Naxalite..."
Addressing the gathering earlier, Bhushan called for the need to understand the difference between 'economic democracy' and 'political democracy'.
Economic inequality has increased so much that 10 to 20 families of this country own more wealth than the bottom 50 percent people of this country together, he claimed.
"We say that we have political democracy, but is the system in the country is run by the opinion of the people?" he asked.
A lot could have been done to reduce the economic inequality by implementing progressive tax, which means that tax will increase as the income increases. Maximum personal income tax in India is around 35 per cent, which is less than most of the other countries that are regarded as capitalist countries, he said.
Secondly, progressive wealth tax could have been implemented be it one, two or three percent, but we did not apply wealth tax, he said.
Bhushan made a pitch for inheritance tax, and said corporate tax has decreased in the country in the recent past.
The government should ensure that a person lives a dignified life with basic food, education, health care and shelter, he said.
