On 21st December 2022, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader and Rajya Sabha Sanjay Raut said that they (his party) will enter Karnataka just like China has entered India and that they need not take anybody’s permission for this. His remarks have come days after union home minister Amit Shah laid down a five-point action plan to resolve the border issue between the two states Maharashtra and Karnataka. Sanjay Raut made this statement in Delhi during a media interaction. However, Sanjay Raut’s comments are not only factually wrong, but they also make no sense.
Sanjay Raut said, “The union government often talks about securing every inch of land. They said that we will not give an inch to China but China entered. Just like China entered, we will also enter Karnataka. We don’t need anyone’s permission to enter. But we believe that the country is one and the matter can be solved through talks. But the chief minister of Karnataka is purposefully heating up the issue.”
#WATCH | Like China has entered, we will enter (Karnataka). We don’t need anyone’s permission. We want to solve it through discussion but Karnataka CM is igniting fire. There is a weak govt in Maharashtra & is not taking any stand on it: Sanjay Raut, Uddhav Thackeray’s faction pic.twitter.com/d0okV6Wq8X
— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2022
Sanjay Raut further said, “This is so because there is a weak government in Maharashtra. They are not taking any stand on this issue. People like Bomai are bound to raise their voices if the chief minister and the deputy chief minister of our state don’t take any stand on an issue for which more than a hundred people laid down their lives. We don’t have any personal grudges against the Karnataka state government or the people of Karnataka. This is a seventy-year-old issue and this is an issue of humanity. The people living there are facing injustice, aggressions, and atrocities and we are raising our voices against the same.”
Sanjay Raut missed the facts while making the controversial comments
Sanjay Raut’s comments, however, are far away from the facts. The factual inconsistency of his statement covers two aspects. Firstly, Sanjay Raut said that China has entered Indian territory while the fact is that Indian soldiers in the Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh have successfully retaliated against the attempts of infiltration by the Chinese army. The soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army of China were forced to move back after a short scuffle with the Indian troops on the border. While the Chinese military had tried to enter India, they failed to do so as Indian soldiers successfully pushed back them into Chinese terrirotiry.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has clarified this issue as he gave a statement in the parliament’s ongoing session.
Rajnath Singh said, “Our army valiantly fought back & forced Chinese troops to go back to their post. They foiled China’s bid to unilaterally alter the status quo along the LAC in the Tawang sector. Both sides have suffered some injury, but none of our soldiers is seriously injured or dead. Due to the timely intervention of Indian military commanders, PLA soldiers went back to their locations. As a follow-up of the incident, the local Commander in the area held a Flag Meeting with his counterpart on 11 December 2022 to discuss the issue in accordance with established mechanisms. The Chinese side was asked to refrain from such actions and maintain peace and tranquillity along the border. The issue has also been taken up with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels.”
Before the defence minister’s statement, the Indian Army statement informing about the clash had also said that “PLA troops contacted the LAC in Tawang Sector which was contested by their own troops in a firm and resolute manner.” LAC or the Line of Actual Control is the effective border between Tibet and India, and therefore it is clear that the clash had taken place on the border itself, and the PLA didn’t enter India as Sanjay Raut is claiming.
Sanjay Raut also said that he does not need anyone’s permission to enter Karnataka, and he will enter Karnataka just like China entered India. This part of his statement lacks sense to a great extent. In the heat of comparing the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue with the Indo-China border issue, Sanjay Raut forgot that the Maharashtra-Karnataka border is an inter-state border within the nation and not an international border like that between India and China. Sanjay Raut, or anyone else from Maharashtra, can anytime enter Karnataka and does not need any permission already.
Despite the ongoing border dispute between the two states, there is no ban for anyone to go from Maharashtra to Karnataka and free movement is allowed across all the Indian states just like these two neighbouring states. While some states in the Northeast has the provision of Inner Line Permit and Restricted Area Permit, there is no such restriction on travel between Maharashtra and Karnata, and daily lakhs of people are commuting between the states on buses, trains, flights and other vehicles, without requiring any permission.
The comparison of an inter-state border with an international border, that too a high-tension border like Indo-China LAC, displays the sinister design of the opposition parties to divide India. Rahul Gandhi has been claiming that India is not a nation but a union of states, and such comparisons give fuel to such divisive claims.
