While Karnataka is moving into assembly elections, Siddaramaiah-led Congress government today resolved to recommend to the Centre to grant religious minority tag to the numerically strong and politically-influential Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community.
Law Minister T B Jayachandra claimed that the cabinet had allowed the guidance of an expert panel set up by the state government on the issue.
“The decision has been taken after deep deliberations and discussion…,” he said. The Government has said the decision would not cast any effect on the rights and interests enjoyed by the existing minorities.
Here are 10 important points in the development:
1. The Nagamohan Das committee claims that Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats are those who believed in the philosophy of Basaveshwara, a 12th-century social reformer.
2. The request for a separate religion tag to Veerashaiva/ Lingayat faiths began from the community, amidst resentment from within over projecting the two communities as the same.
3. A section led by Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha requested for a separate religion status, citing that Veerashaiva and Lingayats are the same, while another group wanted it only for Lingayats.
Members of #Lingayat community celebrating in Kalaburagi after Karnataka Govt accepted suggestions of Nagamohan Das committee which asked for separate religion for the community pic.twitter.com/KpnFji0Bjh
— ANI (@ANI) March 19, 2018
4. They claim that Veerashaivas are one among the seven sects of Shaivas- a part of Hinduism.
5. Last week, the seers, led by Gadag-based Tontadarya Mutt’s Siddalinga Swami, had met Siddaramaiah and urged him to implement the report of an official committee that recommended conferring a separate religious and minority status to their community.
6. Karnataka State Minorities Commission had formed a seven-member committee, headed by retired high court Judge H N Nagamohan Das, on the issue which submitted its report on March 2.
7. Of late, some Lingayats have also stated that they were open to having the Veerashaivas under their umbrella, but the Lingayat nomenclature was non-negotiable.
8. The Lingayat/Veerashaiva community that owes allegiance to the “social reform movement” initiated by Basaveshwara has a substantial population in Karnataka, especially in the northern parts of the state.
9. The BJP and several sections of the Hindu community have maintained a cautious stance keeping away from the move to give Veerashaiva/Lingayat separate religion status.
10. They have accused the Siddaramaiah government of dividing the society to draw political mileage ahead of assembly elections due in the next couple of months.