Lingayat feud: Security for top guns

Bengaluru: The state government has given police protection to retired IAS officer, Mr S.M. Jamdhar who is spearheading a campaign seeking separate religion tag for Lingayats, following inputs from state police intelligence sleuths about a possible threat to his life.

When contacted, Mr Jamdhar said, "I did not ask for police protection as I haven't received threats from any individual or organisation nor threatening messages on my mobile phone. I am not in social media either. However a senior police officer called me and offered me police protection on the basis of intelligence reports they have gathered from various sources. I heard a Government Order has been issued on Friday.”

The retired IAS officer had been in the forefront of the campaign for separate religion tag for Lingayats-a demand which had been there for  many decades, but got a boost in the last two months after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah promised the community separate religion tag if both factions of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community agreed to come on a common platform. Mr Jamdhar  holds an important post in the newly created forum-Lingayat Pratyekha Dharma Horata Samithi. 

Several ministers of the Siddaramaiah government like Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil, Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni, Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil and Municipal Administration Minister Eshwar Khandre have been openly supporting the cause of Lingayats and had been taking a lead in holding conventions to this effect. 

Sources told Deccan Chronicle that a few pontiffs and their followers had accused Mr Jamdhar of prompting the Congress ministers to rake up this issue just a few months before the 2018 Assembly polls. The police intelligence sleuths are learnt to have gathered information about a possible threat to the lives of Mr Jamdhar, JD(S) Floor Leader in the Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti, M.B. Patil and Vinay Kulkarni and suggested   police protection for them. 

Based on this input, security has been scaled up for Mr Patil and Mr Kulkarni, and gunmen have been provided to both Mr Jamdhar and Mr Horatti. The threatening calls were reportedly from North-Karnataka districts and a hunt is on for these callers. It is said that leaders of a political party are behind these threat calls/messages.