Bengaluru: In a significant move that is set to heat up the political scene ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, the Congress-led Siddharamaiah Government yesterday decided to give independent religious status to the Lingayat community, which forms 17% of the State’s population, and decided to ask the Centre to grant it minority status.
The two major factions of the community are Veerashaivas and those who want to be known only as Lingayats, the followers of 12th century saint Basavanna who wanted to break away from the established Hindu tradition, and opposed the caste system and Vedic rituals.
The decision was taken at a lengthy Cabinet meeting on the basis of the Justice Nagamohan Das Committee report and amid threats from Veerashaiva Lingayat Seers against recommending minority status to Lingayats alone.
“After due deliberations and some discussion on concerns of various sections of society, the Cabinet has decided to accept the recommendations of the State Minority Commission which is based on the report of an expert committee headed by Justice Nagamohan Das. It had recommended to consider grant of recognition as religious minority to the Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat, believers of Basava Tattva, under Section 2(d) of the Karnataka Minorities Act. It was also decided to forward the same to the Central Government for notifying under Section 2(d) of the Central Minority Commission Act,” Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said quoting the Cabinet decision.
The decision by the Siddharamaiah Cabinet comes close on the heels of its decision to have a separate State Flag for Karnataka, which is also pending approval from the Centre, which is ruled by the BJP, the Congress’ key political opponent in the State.
With this move, the Siddharamaiah Government has now put the ball in the Centre’s court to accept or reject these two crucial Cabinet decisions that are being seen as politically crucial ahead of the Assembly polls.
The huge chunk of the Lingayats are traditionally said to be a major vote bank of the BJP, especially in North Karnataka that borders Maharashtra.
Former BJP Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa also belongs to the Lingayat community.
The BJP on its part has accused the Congress of attempting to divide the community for electoral gains.
During his recent visit to Karnataka, BJP President Amit Shah downplayed the issues of a separate Flag and separate religion status for Lingayats, terming these as a “political game” being played by the Congress.
The Cartoon is simply superb! The cartoon depicts the 2 political parties who want to grab the votes in the coming elections. All these years the Lingayats and Veerashaivas more or less used to vote BJP as their favourite party. In fact, the BJP made Yeddy as its state party President thinking that he can bring all the votes of Lingayats without any effort. This was an unhealthy attitude of a community which was started by Great reformer Basavanna. He wanted to bring together downtrodden people under the umbrella of Lingayat (not Veerashaiva) in order to eliminate discrimination in the society. As years passed, this Lingayat community became stronger and stronger and thus it was kept under ‘Forward Caste’.
The Veerashaivas used to distinguish themselves from Lingayats as if they are superior to the latter. This caused imbalance among themselves and Lingayats thought that they belonged to Basava Dharma which is not exactly Hindu religion. They have been fighting for separate religion since many many years.
Now, our CM Siddaramaiah rightly thought that it is a great opportunity to remove monopoly of BJP over Lingayat votes. He constituted a committee headed by High Court Judge. The committee gave the report recommending separate religious status to Lingayats. The cabinet has sent the recommendations to the Central Govt for approval.
Siddu’s action, though looks like a political one, is also an action against BJP’s monopoly of Lingayat’s votes, which is fair!
BASAVANNA IS NOT THE FOUNDER OF LINGAYATISM .
THEREE IS NOW LOT OF DOUBTS ASLO AS TO WHO IS THE ORIGINAL LINGAYAT OR BASAVANNA CONVERTED LINGAYATS ?
BASAANNA IS NOT THE PERSON WHO STARTED LINGAYAT RELIGION. HIN FACT HE HAS SPOILED THE LINGYAT RELIGION BY GIVNG LINGA DEESKSHA TO TOM , DICK AND HARRY AND . MOST OF THIS 99 SUBSECTS OF LINGAYAT WHICH HEY CLAIM ARE ALL CONVERTED FROM HARIJANS, SC/STS AND DOWNTRODDEN. FOR TODAYS POBLEM IN OUR STATE IS DUE THE GREATEST MISCHIEF DONE BY BASAVANNA . NOW THE /MISCHIEF IS DONE BY MATE MAHADEVI AND AS WELL THOSE WHO ARE ASPIRING FOR BE LINGAYATS. THESE ARE NOT ORIGINAL LINGAYATS. MAJORITY OF THE TRHOSE CHOTA MOTA SWAMIJIS IN KHAVI ARE ALL CONVERTEEES.
Let each person follow the religion of his choice.
Why are the So called Leaders so much concerned what each is following , if he or she is comfortable , and calls his way his religion.
There is no harm, lets us stop playing politics over what is between the Creator and his Creation.
|Jai Hind Jai Karnataka
Treacherous and militating against our national ethos by dividing the Lingayat and the Veerashaiva communities just for gaining an upper hand in the run up to the Karnataka assembly elections.And for once the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has in a desperate move to retain power seems to have eaten more grass than he can chew.