The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), jittery over the growing demand from the Lingayat community to be recognised as a separate religion, has now launched a counter-campaign with the demand for other backward classes (OBC) tag for all the Lingayat sub-sects.
The issue of religion tag, ever since it was mooted, has put the BJP on the back foot, especially after the former Chief Minister and Lingayat strongman B.S. Yeddyurappa opposed the demand initially but went soft on it later. The community is a crucial vote bank for the BJP, especially in north Karnataka, where the demand has been vociferously voiced.
New outfit
Now, Lingayata–Veerashaiva Sanghatana Samiti, a newly set up organisation in Hubballi, has come up with the demand for categorising all sub-sects under Lingayat community under OBC. It wants the State government to meet this demand.
Mallikarjun Savakar, secretary of the samiti and close aide of the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar, said as of now, only 19 sub-sects under the Lingayat community had been given OBC status. However, according the information published by the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, there are 72 sub-sects in the community.
The samiti’s justification for the demand is that since constitutional experts differ on the prospects of Lingayat getting recognition as an independent religion, the State government, which has the authority to take a decision on OBC categorisation, should fulfil this demand first.
As a first step towards building community support for the demand, the samiti plans to hold a protest march from Moorusavir Mutt in Hubballi.
Meanwhile, those demanding the religion tag have taken exception to this new demand. President of the Vishwa Lingayata Mahasabha Sanjay Makal said that at a time when the community was moving towards arriving at a consensus, such a demand was unfortunate.
“It is like asking for a glass of water when you can get access to the sea,” he said, and that such “illogical demands” would only create confusion rather than strengthening the cause.