Politicians in Karnataka cautious over Lingayat minority row

BENGALURU: Caution is the keyword for politicians in Karnataka when it comes to supporting or rejecting religious minority status to Lingayats. The demand for separate religious status is rearing its head again ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and this time, members of the community batting for Lingayatism to be recognised as minority religion have their guns aimed at the central government. 

Given the impact, their association with the movement had on their electoral and political life, politicians in Karnataka are wary about voicing their support to the cause as strongly as they did before the assembly elections. 

As much as the Congress refuses to acknowledge in the open that the Siddaramaiah government’s decision to recommend separate religious minority tag to Lingayats backfired in the assembly elections, party insiders say that it was one of the primary reasons for Congress’ failure. Such was the anger within the party that leaders like M B Patil, who was in the forefront of the movement, were denied cabinet berths. Many within the party attributed Vinay Kulkarni’s loss to the Lingayat row as well. 

“The seers who announced support to Congress refused to ask their followers to vote for us. The community voted for BJP heavily because a few Congress leaders misled the then government and convinced that the larger part of the community wanted separate religious status,” said a source from the Congress. 

Basava Dharma Peetha’s woman seer Mathe Mahadevi has announced a three-day Lingayat convention from December 10-12 in New Delhi to pressurise the Union government to give its assent to Karnataka government’s recommendation of religious minority status. Once bitten twice shy, leaders are now careful about how they get associated with the upcoming convention. 

Congress leader and Rashtriya Basava Sene’s Chief Vinay Kulkarni told The New Indian Express that many would back the convention as community members and not for political affiliations. “There is nothing political about it, but as individuals from the community, many will support it. Seniors from the community will take part,” he said stopping short of stating definitively if he would be part of the convention. 

“There was no real impact on the assembly poll results. It is natural for some percentage of votes to be affected during such fights,” Kulkarni said when asked if his open support for the cause cost him his seat. BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP and prominent Lingayat leader Prabhakar Kore said that Mathe Mahadevi’s call for a convention had little significance. “She or anybody is free to do whatever they want to. We will not intervene, but we haven’t recognised her as a leader and it really doesn’t matter to us. People from the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community clearly understand what is happening,” he said. 

Many from the BJP had accused the then Congress government of attempting to break the community for political gains. Leaders from the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community believe that a few seers’ urge to stay relevant is shadowing real issues of education, job opportunities especially for women within. 
With those lobbying for separate religious minority tag to Lingayats all set to rekindle the issue, all eyes are now on how the BJP-led NDA government plays its cards, especially when the potential impact of the Lingayat community as a vote bank has been established time and again in Karnataka.