Water Resources and Medical Education Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s apology to the Veerashaiva community for the previous Congress government taking up the Lingayat issue — recommending to the Centre that the community be accorded religious minority status — has stirred up a hornet’s nest.
In an interview with The Hindu, he said his apology was “true to his conscience” as the move had been “a mistake.” Excerpts:
Why did you, out of the blue, raise the Lingayat issue, which was almost forgotten after the 2018 elections? Were there any local compulsions in the run-up to the byelections?
I was addressing a gathering of members of the community at the ‘Dasara Darbar’ of Sri Veerasomeshwar Swami of Rambhapuri Peetha (of Veerashaiva faith) at Laxmeshwar in Gadag district on Wednesday night. I had met some seers before that, but I cannot reveal what the seers told me. My words were true to my conscience as I strongly feel that getting involved in any caste or religious issue is not the work of the government. In any religious issue, the government should work towards uniting, not dividing. This is my opinion.
Some are seeing this as a way of indirectly hitting out at Siddaramaiah, who forwarded the demand to the Centre.
Not at all. This has nothing to do with Siddaramaiah. Being part of the Congress government then, I was also part of the developments that arose following the demand for minority religion tag for Lingayats. It was a Cabinet decision taken with unity. But now I have realised that we should not have entertained the demand. It was a mistake.
It is also being argued that as a Vokkaliga leader, you were interfering in an internal issue of Lingayats.
I may be a Vokkaliga or [may] belong to any community. Apart from being a Vokkaliga, I am a political person too, and in that capacity I can speak true to my conscience.
Is this a political strategy with the Ballari bypoll in mind?
I do not want to reveal anything at this juncture. I wanted to say this on some occasion, and it is a just coincidence that elections in the State are round the corner.
There are rumours of the Congress high command being upset with you over this issue.
No. This is my opinion and has nothing to do with the party. I am a disciplined soldier of the party and the high command knows that.