A day after the BJP tried to score political brownie points over the Congress in the Mahadayi river water dispute, the State government expedited the deliberations over minority religion status to Lingayats.
The Karnataka State Minorities Commission (KSMC), to which the State government had referred the Lingayat issue a week ago, has formed a seven-member committee, led by retired high court judge H.N. Nagamohan Das, to look into the issue and submit a report. The official notification of the committee will be out on Saturday, sources said.
Significantly, the committee will have a short deadline of four to six weeks. Sources said the deadline is the key, as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wants to recommend minority status for the community, if the committee report recommends it, before the model code of conduct for the Assembly polls kicks in. The Lingayat agitation had earlier set a deadline of December 31 for the State government to take a clear stand on the issue. M. Thippanna, national vice-president of the Mahasabha, spoke to The Hindu expressing shock over the minorities commission “expeditiously” constituting a committee. “It is evident there is politics in this and it appears that they want to do this before elections. Veerashaiva-Lingayats are not fools and know whom to vote for,” he said. He also questioned whether the members had expertise on the subject, and were unbiased.
However, retired bureaucrat S.M. Jamdar, leading the Lingayat agitation, welcomed the formation of the panel. “The committee, in its wisdom, will decide on the modalities of eliciting feedback from the community and examine historical evidence. We are confident of presenting a strong case in favour of minority religion tag for Lingayats,” he said.
The committee includes former chairman of the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission C.S. Dwarkanath; political scientist Muzaffar Assadi; head of the Kannada Language Chair at JNU Purushottam Bilimale; chairman of Kannada Development Authority S.G. Siddaramaiah; and noted journalist Saraju Katkar, among its members.
The committee will be handed over five petitions the KSMC has got over the issue — three demanding separate minority religion for Lingayats, one arguing they are Hindus, and the last by the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha, which argues they are not Hindus, but demand minority religion tag for Veerashaiva-Lingayat.
