Karnataka government on Monday decided to give a separate religion status to the state’s powerful Lingayat community. The state’s Congress-led government gave its nod to the recommendations made by the Nagamohan committee under section 2D of the state Minorities Commission Act. The proposal will now be sent to the Centre for its final approval.
Lingayats are believed to be the largest vote bank with nearly 20% electorate in Karnataka, which goes to polls in barely two months time.
Today decision by the Siddaramaiah government comes just a day after a group of Lingayat religious leaders the chief minister to urge him to implement the report of an official committee that recommended conferring a separate religious and minority status to their community.
The seers, led by Gadag-based Tontadarya Mutt’s Siddalinga Swami, called on Siddaramaiah at his official residence here and wanted him to consider and implement the Nagmohan Das Committee’s report which has said “Lingayats in Karnataka may be consideredas religious minority,” reported PTI.
“Our fight is not new, it has been a 900-year-old fight and it has taken a shape now. The Chief Minister should implement the report and accord separate status to Lingayat community, the Tontadarya math swamiji was quoted by the PTI.
Today’s decision by the Karnataka government is seen as another masterstroke by Siddaramaiah to further outsmart the BJP just before the assembly polls. Not so long, the state government had revealed its state flag and sent the proposal to the BJP government at the Centre.