NAGPUR:
Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan on Wednesday sought to know what action will be taken against Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for his alleged “provocative” tweets posted amid the border row which he claimed ”defamed” Maharashtra.
Raising the issue in the Legislative Assembly, Chavan, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister, insisted the controversial tweets were from a verified account and accused the Eknath Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of shielding Bommai.
He said when a Twitter account has a blue tick then it is verified and genuine. “We are aware that statements made by the Karnataka Chief Minister on the border row are still there (on Twitter). The comments are provocative, (they) defame Maharashtra and the account is verified. There is no reason to shield him,” said the Congress MLA.
“If the statements are provocative, then what action are we taking? Why are we backing it as a fake account (and saying the tweets have been posted from an unverified account)? It is verified and authentic,” Chavan said.
“What is the basis of calling the tweets fake?” the Congress leader asked.
He said Bommai, a senior BJP leader, makes provocative statements on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border issue, but the Shinde-led government just stays calm.
In his response, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis pointed out that Bommai had clarified before Union Home minister Amit Shah that the tweets in question were not posted by him.
Fadnavis said he will write to Shah on the issue.
Last week, Shah had met Bommai and Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde in New Delhi amid rising tension between the two states over the decades-old border dispute.
Earlier this month, Shinde said tweets in the name of his Karnataka counterpart claiming some areas of Maharashtra were not actually posted by Bommai.
The dispute, dating back to the 1960s, centres around Maharashtra’s claims on border district of Belagavi and the surrounding region in northern Karnataka which has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population.
Karnataka has vigorously contested Maharashtra’s claims on the Marathi-speaking areas and the matter is pending in the Supreme Court. PTI
