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The Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha has urged the Karnataka government to accept the recommendations made by the committee headed by former Karnataka High Court Judge HN Nagamohan Das, and forward it to the Centre.
The panel last week submitted its report to the Karnataka State Minorities Commission (KSMC) in which it recommended to grant ‘religious minority’ status to the Lingayat community.
Kannada writer and literary critic Chandrashekar Patil (Champa) told reporters on Monday: “We are requesting the Karnataka government to accept and forward the recommendations to the Centre without delay.”
The committee went through documents related to religion, literature, rituals and practices before arriving at the decision. It concluded that there is enough evidence to show that the Lingayat religion is different from Hinduism.
“The committee had revived 62 submissions while studying the Lingayat community’s demand for ‘religious minority’ status. The committee has taken a fair view,” he added.
In December 2017, the Karnataka government constituted a seven-member expert committee to examine the demand for a separate religion tag for Lingayats. The newly formed Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha is at loggerheads with Akhil Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha.
The panel in its report is said to have expressed that “Lingayats in Karnataka may be considered as a religious minority. Veerashaivas, who consider Basavanna as dharma guru, believe in vachanas as sacred text and whereas Ishta Linga may be considered as Lingayats.”
The committee has also recommended that the State government “request the Centre to declare Lingayats as a religious minority.”
Court case
Further developments will however depend on an ongoing case in the Karnataka High Court.
The court had earlier put a rider on the process initiated by the KSMC on the formation of the panel and its report. It said further steps will be subject to the final decision of the court on two petitions filed against the report. The next hearing of the case is on March 9.
The panel, which had initially sought six months to submit the report, presented it within two months of the committee’s formation.
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