Karnataka govt says Lingayats are of a religion

The Karnataka Cabinet on Monday accepted the recommendation of the State Minority Commission to grant religion status to Lingayats.

The Siddaramaiah government will now seek the Centre’s permission to notify the same under Section 2(c) of the Central Minority Commission Act.

Briefing reporters after a lengthy Cabinet meeting, Karnataka Law Minister TB Jayachandra said: “After due deliberations and some discussion on the concern of various sections of society, the Cabinet has decided to accept the recommendation of the Karnataka State Minority Commission, which, based on the report of an expert committee headed by Justice Nagamohan Das, was recommended to consider grant of recognition as religious minority of the Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayats (believers of Basava Tattva) under Section 2(d) of the Karnataka State Minorities Act.” The Commission had also recommended that a grant of the status to Lingayats should not affect benefits that are now available to other religious and linguistic minorities, Jayachandra said.

Divided Cabinet

Several Lingayat ministers of the Siddaramaiah Cabinet — Water Resources Minister MB Patil, Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil, Mines Minister Vinay Kulkarni and Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddi — had been pitching for religious minority under the aegis of the Jagathika Lingayatha Mahasabha.

Ministers under the banner of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha — Municipal Administration Minister Eshwar Khandre and Horticulture Minister SS Mallikarjun — had been vehemently opposing the move saying Veerashaivas and Lingayats should not be divided.

Political impact

With Karnataka going to the polls in less than three months, the grant of religion status to the Lingayats is a significant move for the ruling Congress government. The minority tag to a numerically-strong and influential Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community is expected to impact the poll outcome, especially in the Mumbai-Karnataka region and in parts of Hyderabad-Karnataka.

With the ball now in the court of the BJP-led Centre, matters rest at an interesting juncture. The BJP is the principal challenger to the Congress in the State.

The leaders of Jagathika Lingayatha Mahasabha are mainly from the Congress and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular). While publicly contending that the movement is apolitical, in private, they are happy that it may yield political dividends.

The BJP’s Jagadish Shettar, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, condemned the government’s move and accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of trying to create divisions in society for political gain.

Former IAS officer SM Jamdaar, who was instrumental in drumming up support for the Lingayat demand for separate religion status, said members of the community were followers of social reformer Basaveshwara, who had rebelled against established Hindu tradition of the caste system and Vedic rituals.

According to Jamdaar, since independence, four attempts were by the community to be counted separately in the national censuses, but they had not sought to be recognised as a minority religion.

The movement, which began as far back as 1942, was resurrected in 2017 by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s promise to look into the demand for a separate religion status for Lingayats and Veerashaivas.

One section of swamis, numbering over 50, had met Siddaramaiah on Sunday to demand a separate identity for Lingayat community. “Our fight is not new; it was a 900-year-old fight and it has taken shape only now,” they had said.

COMMENT NOW