Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil on Monday challenged those who are opposing independent religion status for Lingayats to contest the next election without using the name of Basavanna or even calling themselves Lingayats.
Addressing presspersons here, the Minister along with Vinay Kulkarni, Minister for Mines and Geology, dismissed reports that the Congress government had raked up this controversy to break the community vote bank. The Minister said the movement was not against any one section of the community.
“The Veerashaivas are a sub-sect under the Lingayats and the efforts to gain a separate tag will, in fact, be beneficial for the entire community and its 99 sub-sects. Once minority status is given, all sub-sects will reap the benefits in education, employment and financial stability,” he said.
He said he had requested Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to set up an expert committee to study documentary evidence and come to a conclusion. Asserting that the group demanding separate tag for Lingayats will not hesitate to approach the Supreme Court, he said: “Our first step will be to get our demand fulfilled by presenting facts to the expert committee in the State. After that, we will approach the Centre and subsequently knock on the doors of the judiciary.”
‘Panchapeetha first’
Meanwhile, at Badami in Bagalkot district, despite claiming that Veerashaiva and Lingayat were two faces of the same coin, Sri Veerasomeshwara Swami told the seers of Virakta Mutts to first take the name of seers of Panchapeetha and then that of Basavanna during religious programmes.
