Bengaluru: A delegation of Veerashaiva Mutt pontiffs issued a stern warning to Chief Minister Siddharamaiah yesterday that the Congress would have to “face the wrath of society” if the proposal to grant ‘religious minority’ status on Lingayats is accepted.
Led by Seers representing the Kashi and Ujjini mutts — two of the five holy pantheons — about 50 pontiffs met Siddharamaiah at his home office ‘Krishna’ and gave him a petition. They urged the CM to recognise ‘Veerashaiva-Lingayat’ as a religion instead if at all the government intended to provide benefits to the community.
Meanwhile, Lingayat Seers have warned of launching a protest unless the Government sends a recommendation for independent religious status for the community to the Centre. Several Lingayat Seers met in Dharwad yesterday to counter their Veerashaiva counterparts, who met the CM to oppose an independent religious tag for their community.
“Instead of carrying out charity and activities to uplift society, it pains us that we have to undergo financial, physical and mental pain to protect the religion from being divided…the Congress will have to forever face protests by civil society, mutts, writers and jurists,” the petition of Veerashaiva Seers stated.
After receiving the petition, Siddharamaiah told the Seers: “Let me make it clear that I’m not against your dharma.”
An expert committee has recommended granting ‘religious minority’ status to Lingayats, which has widened the divide within the ruling Congress and the Cabinet is split with Veerashaiva and Lingayat Ministers locking horns.
When Siddharamaiah first mooted separate religion status last June, he wanted both Veerashaivas and Lingayats to come to an agreement. According to Dingaleshwar Swamy, however, there is agreement that Veerashaiva and Lingayat are the same. “There are 3,000 mutts in Karnataka, of which 2,950 are united against the proposal to grant religious minority status to Lingayats. Only 4-5 of the remaining 50 mutts are making noise.”
The Lingayat Seers, however, have called the Veerashaiva seers as “hijack seers,” and claimed they were not getting much support for the rallies they were holding to oppose the minority tag for Lingayats. “We will fight a legal battle with historical records to support our claim,” they asserted.
Urging the government not to give in to pressure from a few Congress leaders and seers on the issue, they warned they would launch a protest if it did not take a decision on the matter at the Mar. 19 Cabinet meeting.
This post was published on March 16, 2018 6:42 pm