Grammatical error sets off discord in Karnataka-Goa relations

A grammatical error in an affidavit filed by the Karnataka Government before Supreme Court has sparked off a row between Karnataka and Goa.

With Karnataka Government laying claim over Goa in the affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, angry Goan legislators had raised the matter in the Assembly and sought to draw their Chief Minister Digambar Kamath’s attention to the “grave threat to Goa’s territorial integrity”.

But, before the matter could snowball into a major inter-state dispute, Karnataka Government has sought to clarify that there was a grammatical error in its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court.

“It was a grammatical error and not an intentional claim”, Karnataka’s Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Kumar told reporters. “It must have happened due to oversight. It is a settled fact that Karnataka and Goa are two separate states”, the Minister said.

The Karnataka Government had filed the affidavit in response to a petition filed by a little-known Konkani organization seeking the merger of Konkani speaking areas of Karnataka into Goa. In its affidavit filed before Supreme Court on July 31, 2007, Karnataka had erroneously said that “Goa is a part of Karnataka” instead of stating that “historically Goa was a part of Karnataka”.

“We only wanted to say Goa was a part of Karnataka in the past. We inadvertently said Goa is a part of Karnataka. It is an advertent mistake”, Suresh Kumar said.
Referring to the ruckus kicked up in Goa Assembly by BJP MLAs over Karnataka’s claim in the affidavit, Suresh Kumar said such small issues should not be allowed to affect inter-state harmony. “We believe that in a federal system where all the states should live with mutual respect and harmony”, he said.