Siddharama Swami of Nagnur Rudrakshi Mutt has expressed fears over the safety of community leaders who led the agitation for a separate Lingayat religion status.
He told presspersons in Belagavi on Friday that he was fearful after reading reports of police investigation into the Gauri Lankesh murder. Sri Siddharama Swami was actively involved in the movement and has addressed rallies in Belagavi and other places.
Leaders like retired bureaucrat S.M. Jamadar and Nijagunananda Swami of Bailur Niskhal Mantap have been in the forefront of the Lingayat movement. They have been demanding that Lingayatism should get a separate religion status that it rightly deserves. But this is being wrongly interpreted as an anti-Hindu movement. Hindu fundamentalists may be thinking that Hinduism will be weakened if Lingayatism was granted a separate religion status. But this is not true. It will not affect Hinduism at all, he said. “I have a suspicion that some Hindutva activists are motivated by the false propaganda against Hinduism. Some of them may have been upset at the ideology or activism of scholars like M.M. Kalburgi and activists like Gauri Lankesh.”
Some people who are thinking on similar lines may also be conspiring against Mr. Jamdar or Sri Nijagunananda Swami, or other leaders, he feared. He urged the State government to take adequate steps to protect thinkers and leaders.