BackKarnataka decides to grant minority status to Lingayats
Decision, based on suggestions of an expert panel, comes ahead of the Karnataka elections
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Bengaluru: After months of uncertainty, Karnataka’s Congress government on Monday decided to accept the recommendations of an official expert committee to grant recognition and religious minority status to Lingayats and Veershaiva Lingayats—two sub-sects that will be considered under the same religious minority status.
“After due deliberations and some discussion on concerns on various sections of society, cabinet has decided to accept the recommendations of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission which, based on the report by the expert committee headed by Justice Nagmohan Das that has recommended to consider grant of recognition as religious minority to the Lingayat and Veershaiva Lingayats under Section 2(d) of the Karnataka State Minorities Act," T.B.Jayachandra, law and parliamentary affairs minister of Karnataka said after a meeting of the state cabinet.
“It was also decided to forward the same to the central government for notifying under Section 2 (c) of the Central Minority Commission Act," he added.
The decision of chief minister Siddaramaiah-led government comes after months of delay in the matter and was aimed at splitting the Lingayat voter base that has traditionally sided with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader B.S. Yeddyurappa. Lingayats are believed to be the largest community in the state, pegged at around 15-17%.
The cabinet’s decision comes at a time when the Congress is leaving little to chance to check the BJP’s run in assembly elections due later this year. The Congress hopes that the Karnataka elections will serve as an indication to which way the 2019 Lok Sabha polls will go.
By mentioning both Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats separately, the cabinet chose to introduce some level of ambiguity into the original recommendation to pacify disgruntled Veerashaivas, who feared being left out of the separate minority religion movement led by the water resources minister M.B. Patil of the Congress party in Karnataka.
“This is a devious and sinister design on the part of the Congress government on the eve of the elections," the BJP said in a statement on Monday. It added that the cabinet decision was intended to divide the society and destroy the basic of Basava philosophy that promotes a casteless and egalitarian society.
“Siddaramaiah has taken a political risk because this is not an issue which lends itself to any easy political cost-benefit analysis. One does not know if this will lead to any significant shift of Lingayat votes from the BJP to the Congress," said A. Narayana, political analyst and professor of public policy at Azim Premji University.
“The words minority, majority will be exploited (by the BJP) to the hilt in this election. This will certainly cost some votes for the Congress and unless the expected gain of Lingayat votes balances or exceeds this loss, the Congress can be the loser," he added.
S.M. Jamdar, a retired IAS officer and the catalyst behind the separate religion movement, said that Lingayats had been considered a separate religion for 800 years until 1871, before it was taken away without reason in 1881.
To avoid any backlash from other communities, the government added that this decision “should not affect the existing benefits available to other religious or linguistic minorities."
Lingayats are categorized under III (B) of the Karnataka reservation list along with Christians, Jains and other communities, entitled for 5% reservation. Communities and minority religions like Buddhists, classified under category II (A) get 15% reservation. Muslims, exclusively categorised under II(B), are entitled to 4% reservation. It is yet to be seen if Lingayats, which has 99 sub-castes that are listed under multiple categories, would get a higher allocation of reservation with the changes in religious status.
Patil said that the movement was only for a separate religious identity and not for reservation.
The cabinet said it will send the decision to the centre for it to be notified under Section 2(C) of the Central Minority Commission Act.
“The cabinet, having accepted, has decided to accord the recognition as a religious minority. The ‘effective date’ of the notification would be, as may be notified by the state government after meeting the procedural requirements and after taking note of the possible impact of such grant of recognition to other minorities or the non-minorities or the public at large," Jayachandra said.
Meanwhile, a group of people clashed in Kalaburagi district when Lingayats were celebrating the cabinet decision. N.Shashikumar, Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi said eight people were detained in the incident which was instigated by a local whose motive is yet to be ascertained. The official said that the police were present at the location and the situation was swiftly brought under control.
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