Religion tag: Shamanur Shivashankarappa hails Centre's no'

Ballari: President of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha and Congress MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa on Sunday welcomed the decision of the Union government rejecting the separate religion demand of Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats (believers in Basava Tatva).

Terming this as a good move, he said  both Lingayats and Veerashaivas should go hand in hand and achieve their demands as going separately will be a disaster. “I am in favour of a dialogue between Akhila Bharatiya Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha and Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha for the good of the community," he said.

Taking a dig at retired IAS officer S.M. Jamdar who is in the forefront of the separate religion movement, Shivashankarappa said, ‘Jamdar has not done anything good for the community when he was an IAS officer and he is now suggesting that I work for the community. He has no moral right to say this.”

Sources close to Mr Shivashankarappa said, he along with other Lingayat leaders in the Congress who opposed separate religion status for Lingayats, will shortly meet AICC president Mr Rahul Gandhi asking him not to press for the religion tag any further as this had backfired on the Congress resulting in the defeat of nearly about 30 candidates in Lingayat dominated Central and north Karnataka regions.

Leaders of Akhila Bharatiya Veerashiva Lingayat Mahasabha are confident that the new coalition government will give a quiet burial to the previous Siddaramaiah government’s decision to accord separate minority religion status to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.

"CM Kumaraswamy has already told that there are far more important issues to be addressed. Hence, this issue will no more be a priority for the coalition government”, said a senior Congress leader.

According to a senior Lingayat leader of the Congress, the Janata Dal (S)–Congress coalition government had kept leaders of the Lingayat movement — both those who favoured  separate religion tag and those who opposed it, out of the cabinet. Among the strong contenders for ministerial berths were Congress leader and former Minister M.B. Patil and seven-time MLC from the JD(S) Basavaraj Horatti. Both of them were in the forefront of the Lingayat movement seeking separate religion status. Mr. Horatti is also president of the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha, an offshoot of the Lingayat movement that took birth after those in the movement felt that the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha was not doing much for the cause. Both of them have been kept out of the ministry. 

Former minister Eshwar Khandre, the Bhalki MLA and national general secretary of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha and  former Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who is national president of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, have also not been considered for ministerial berths.

However MLAs from the Lingayat community who did not directly participate in the controversial movement have been inducted. Shivanand Patil, Congress MLA for Basavanabagewadi,  JD(S) MLAs Venkatrao Nadagouda from Sindhanur and M.C. Managuli from Sindagi all belonging to the Lingayat community are surprise selections for ministerial berths. Political analysts observe that it might be a tactical move to steer clear of the controversy, particularly by the JD(S) which did not spell out its stand clearly on the issue before the elections.