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Lingayat seers, leaders urge for minority status after massive meet

  • Seers and leaders have urged the State and the Central Governments to accord independent, and minority tag to Lingayata.
  • A delegation of seers and politicians met the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and presented an appeal along with documents.
  • Those who do not subscribe to Basavanna’s teachings and Vachanas as the scriptures should be left out.
  •  The CM Siddaramaiah has clarified that the idea of separate religion status for Lingayata was not initiated by him.
Lingayat seers leaders urge for minority status after massive meet

Lingayat seers and leaders have urged the State and the Central Governments to accord independent status and minority tag to Lingayat sect established by Basavanna.  They have submitted to the Chief Minister to recommend to announce Lingayata as the minority religion across the country and issue appropriate amendment to 1994 Karnataka Minorities Act section 10 (H), reported Kannada Prabha.

A delegation of seers and politicians led by Ministers M B Patil, Basavaraja Rayareddy, Vinay Kulkarni, Sharana Prakash Patil met the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and presented an appeal along with documents requesting him to declare Lingayata as a minority religion in the State and also recommend for the same to the Centre.

The appeal states that an already submitted appeal by the Veerashaiva Mahasabha has requested to announce Veerashaiva - Lingayata as a separate religion. But the request from Mahasabha must not be considered and only Lingayata should be declared a separate religion. The minority Linagayata religion includes all those Lingayatas in State, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, the appeal mentioned.

A meeting held at the Jnana Bharathi Auditorium at Central College campus on Thursday attended by all seers and 4 Cabinet Ministers demanding independent minority religion status to Lingayata concluded that Veerashaivas can be apart of Lingayata only if they discard the Vedic rituals and adopt Basavanna’s teachings and philosophy.  A significant decision taken at the meeting that those who do not subscribe to Basavanna’s teachings and Vachanas as the scriptures should be left out of Lingayata religion.

The Veerashaiva Mahasabha and Panchapeeta seers did not attend the meeting. Minister and Veerashaiva Mahasabha chief secretary Eshwar Khandre was conspicuous by his absence and the differences between the 2 factions were out in the open.  

The coordinator of the meeting retired IAS officer Shivananda Jamadar spoke to media persons after the meeting and said special significance has been placed on unity and cordiality in the Lingayat community.  Similar to Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs, Linagayats are first Indians, then Kannadigas and later followers of their religions. Patriotism and serving the nation is the prime aim of Lingayats he said.  

Lingayata according independent religion is our aim; it has been decided to pressurise State and Central Governments to grant all rights and privileges to Lingayata religion according to Constitution section 25, 28 and 29 and 30. It will also be demandedto accord separate Code Number to Lingayat and sub sect of Lingayat in the Census, he said.

During 1891 Census conducted during the time of Mysore Wadiyars and later by British in the Bombay province, it was recorded as Lingayata religion, he explained.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has clarified that the idea of separate religion status for Lingayat was not initiated by him. Speaking to media persons, he said BJP is falsely propagandizing thus, the government has not taken any decision regarding separate status for Veerashaiva and Lingayata.

“Veerashaiva Mahasabha had written a letter appealing for separate religion status and Mate Mahadevi had written appealing for separate status for Lingayata. Somebody else also had submitted an appeal for separate religion status on the occasion of renaming Women’s University after Akka Mahadevi and also during making it compulsory to display Basavanna’s portrait all government offices.  I only said if all come united I would look into it and recommend to Centre.  Just for this I am being made responsible. I was not aware about Dr Manmohan Singh rejecting”, he said.  

Separate applications have been submitted by both factions.  Both will be inspected and action taken without any prejudice or politics, he assured.

 

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