Bengaluru: A major part of the Lingayats is making ready to push for a separate faith tag for the group — among the many most distinguished in Karnataka — almost 5 years after it was proposed by the erstwhile Congress-led state authorities however struck down by the BJP-led central authorities.
The Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha is mobilising assist for the separate faith tag, however needs to maintain its marketing campaign freed from any political involvement.
The transfer comes simply forward of the meeting elections.
“We’re not together with any political occasion or chief nor are we giving any memorandum to the present authorities that has simply over a month in workplace,” Jamdar S.M., a former civil servant and the principal basic secretary of the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha, advised The Print.
Six members of the Lingayat Mahasabha filed a petition within the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom almost 2 years in the past, the place the case is at present being heard.
Lingayats, together with Veerashaivas — phrases which can be typically used interchangeably, however are described as being completely different by group members — are believed to account for 17 per cent of Karnataka’s complete inhabitants. Of the 23 chief ministers within the state thus far, 10 have belonged to this group.
The problem of the separate faith tag, nonetheless, has turn into a sizzling potato, with variations throughout the group including to the controversy.
For one, the Veerashaivas need to be included within the separate faith, a requirement opposed by the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha.
It is because, Jamdar mentioned, the Lingayats comply with the philosophy of Basavanna, the Twelfth-century social reformer, and the Veerashaivas contemplate themselves Hindus.
Then there may be the matter of reservation-related calls for from sure sub-sects just like the Panchamasalis.
The erstwhile Congress authorities’s determination to accord the minority tag got here after the Karnataka State Minorities Fee — primarily based on the report filed by an skilled committee headed by Justice Nagmohan Das — really useful contemplating the grant of non secular minority standing to the Lingayat and Veershaiva Lingayats.
Nonetheless, in keeping with many political observers and leaders, the choice was one of many largest causes for the Congress dropping energy in 2018 because the BJP, then in opposition, projected it as an “election gimmick” and “ploy” to divide the group on emotional points.
Jamdar is broadly believed to have been the mind behind the Congress-led authorities’s 2018 transfer, which was championed, amongst others, by then state minister M.B. Patil.
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Taking over the central govt’s arguments
The Lingayats are followers of Basavanna, who took it upon himself to cease discrimination primarily based on caste and different “evils” below the Chaturvarna or four-fold caste system of Hinduism.
Basavanna, who was impressed by the Bhakti Motion, rejected Brahmin rituals and temple worship and envisaged a society that was casteless, freed from discrimination, and the place women and men had been thought-about equals.
Based on Jamdar, the central authorities had opposed the minority faith standing for Lingayats on 3 major grounds.
First, he mentioned, was the 1871 census of Mysore state.
Jamdar mentioned the federal government’s declare that the Lingayats had been thought-about a sect of Hinduism within the census is fake. Based on him, the census talked about them as a separate faith.
“They (authorities) can open the 1871 census of Mysore state, the place in three completely different pages, they’ve clearly talked about that Lingayat is a separate faith, not a caste,” he added.
Second, he mentioned, the federal government mentioned the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes throughout the Lingayats will lose all advantages if the guardian group is accorded a minority faith standing. He claimed this was false as properly.
“The marginalised communities that come below Buddhists and Sikhs have been accorded all privileges, regardless of the classification,” he mentioned.
And third, he added, {that a} non-public physique (Veerashaiva Mahasabha) had opposed the separate faith tag just for Lingayats and wished this to incorporate Veerashaivas, thought-about one of many 99 sub-sects of the group.
Jamdar mentioned that the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, headed by veteran Congress chief Shamanur Shivashankarappa, has been preventing to get minority faith standing for Veerashaivas and Lingayats, and opposed any transfer that considers solely Lingayats.
H.M. Renuka Prasanna, the secretary of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, advised ThePrint that “we imagine that Veerashaiva and Lingayats are one and our battle for minority faith is from earlier than Independence”.
“The courts can’t resolve on issues of religion and solely Parliament by modification can grant this standing,” he mentioned.
He added that the BJP is all about “Hindutva” and doesn’t care to grant minority faith standing, however the Veerashaiva Mahasabha will transfer ahead if a non-BJP authorities involves energy in Karnataka within the upcoming elections.
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The politics of all of it
The Lingayats have firmly stood behind the BJP, notably B.S. Yediyurappa, a distinguished Lingayat chief, particularly for the reason that 2008 elections.
However the group has wavered in its determination in latest occasions, largely since Bommai — additionally a Lingayat — has not been capable of assuage the rising anger throughout the group, particularly the Panchamasalis, whose reservation-related calls for stay unfulfilled thus far.
The top seer of the Kudala Sangama Matha, Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami, who’s main the Panchamasali agitation, has threatened to marketing campaign towards the BJP if the latter doesn’t reclassify the group below class 2A of the state backward lessons listing, which outlines a 15 per cent quota for the listed teams.
The Panchamasalis, led by distinguished BJP legislators like Basanagouda Patil (Yatnal), have claimed to be a serious drive behind the BJP’s defeat in Bommai’s dwelling district of Haveri within the 2021 Hanagal meeting bypolls as he failed to maneuver the group to class 2A.
Vokkaligas are at present below the 3A class with different communities like Reddys and Naidus, amongst others, who at present have a reservation of 4 per cent. The group had demanded that this be elevated to 12 per cent.
Equally, the Veerashaiva Lingayats and the Panchamasalis and a number of other different caste teams, like Marathas and Aryas, amongst others, get about 5 per cent reservation below 3B.
In January this yr, the Bommai authorities determined to take away your entire ‘3’ class within the OBC listing and carved out two new classes — 2C & 2D — to placate Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The quota below these new classes was to be drawn from spare reservation below the ten per cent quota for economically weaker sections (EWS).
“There might be no meddling with 2A & 2B. The proportion saved below EWS might be distributed to extend the reservation for these two teams,” J.C. Madhuswamy, Karnataka’s minister for legislation and parliamentary affairs, mentioned when the cupboard permitted the 2 new classes on 16 January.
The Panchamasalis, nonetheless, have rejected the brand new categorisation.
Talking to ThePrint, Patil, the Lingayat face of the Congress, mentioned that a minority faith tag would have given the group higher reservation and prevented calls for by sub-sects just like the Panchamasalis, who he claimed are in search of higher academic and employment alternatives just for itself and never your entire Lingayat group.
Based on M.B Patil, the group has understood the explanation for the 2018 determination.
“There was a query whether or not we wished to offer justice to all of the sub-communities (sub-sects). See what has occurred now with the Panchamasali reservation. The sub-sect is asking for reservation, just like the reservation for Jains and Sikhs. All the Lingayat faith would have gotten minority standing and reservation in medical and engineering seats,” the Congress chief mentioned.
“We’d have had representations (reservation) in KPSC and UPSC each. It (intent of minority faith standing) was misunderstood on the time, and it was very near elections… BJP, RSS and others used it towards us,” he added.
The Congress has been attempting exhausting to court docket the Lingayats by highlighting what it phrases the BJP’s mistreatment of B.S. Yediyurappa, who was changed as CM in 2021 amid speculations of a strained relationship with the occasion’s central management.
“After Yediyurappa’s elimination, we now have an excellent likelihood now. Yediyurappa was a tall chief, however after him there’s a vacuum. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai can also be Lingayat however doesn’t match Yediyurappa’s stature,” Patil mentioned.
“So, this time, with correct ticket distribution to Lingayats wherever they’ve a winnability issue, we are able to achieve the arrogance of the group and get extra seats.”
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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