NEW DELHI: Ahead of Assembly polls in the state, the
Congress government in
Karnataka today agreed to recommend that
Lingayats be considered part of a separate religion, ANI reported.
The 12 th -century social reformer,
Basavanna, founded the Lingayat community, which had distanced itself from Hindu Veerashaivas because the latter followed the Vedas and supported the caste system, which Basavanna was against.
The
Lingayat community’s demand for a minority-status tag received a big boost on March 2 with a seven-member expert committee recommending the Karnataka government consider their plea. The state government accepted the suggestions of the Justice Nagamohan Das panel and the cabinet gave its nod to the recommendation of separate religion for the Lingayat community today.
The Justice Nagamohan Das panel was constituted by the
Karnataka State Minorities Commission to study the Lingayats ' demand for a separate religion tag. Based on the panel’s report, the minorities’ commission had asked the
Congress government to recommend to the Centre that they accord minority status to the community.
The move is being seen as a poll strategy of the Congress to divide the large Veerashaiva-Lingayat vote bank which traditionally favours the BJP.
