Religion tag! Lingayats intensify their war cry

Kalaburagi: Reiterating their demand for independent religion status, the Lingayats, who held a massive rally here on Sunday, vowed to intensify their agitation till their demand is met.

While asking people of the community to remain united, various speakers clarified that their movement was neither against any group nor prompted by political ambition. “It’s for the welfare of the community”, they added. 

The city was painted in saffron as a huge number of Lingayats from different parts of Hyderabad-Karnataka, Mumbai-Karnataka as well as Maharashtra, AP  and Telangana marched through the main thoroughfares carrying flags and banners before converging at NV Grounds. 

Besides Lingayat Ministers Basavaraj Rayareddy, M.B. Patil, Dr Sharanprakash Patil and Vinay Kulkarni, heads of over 20 mutts such as Sri Tontadarya Swamiji of Gadag Mutt, Sri Shivamurthy Sharanaru of Chitradurga Mutt, Mate Mahadevi, Sharanabasappa Appa, former IAS Officer Shivanand Jamdar participated. Former minister Basavaraj Horatti presided over the meet which was named after Dr M.M. Kalaburagi. However Lingayat leaders associated with the BJP stayed away from the rally. Explaining how Lingayat dharma was different from Veerashaivism, Dr Jamdar said that they would be betraying Basavanna who fought for establishing an egalitarian society, if they did not fight for religion status. Launching  the Rashtriya Basava Sene (RBS), an organisation of Lingayats, Mr M.B. Patil felt Lingayat dharma should have become one of the major world religions. “But unfortunately it has been confined to only a few states. The time has come now to redeem it. The community should strive for building a new society envisioned by Basavanna and Sharanas,” Mr Patil stated.