The group advocating a separate religion tag for Lingayats on Thursday alleged that the Sangh Parivar had “conspired and succeeded” in getting Shivakumara Swami, seer of Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru, to change his stand on the support for the group.
“While we do not question the authority and supremacy of the seer as it is his discretion to change or modify his stand, this is a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar. Prior to the developments, a politician had said in the media to wait for two days and see. We do not know if this is what he meant,” said former IAS officer S.M. Jaamdar, representing the group.
The members, also including Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni, legislators B.R. Patil and Basavaraj Horatti, were unanimous in expressing solidarity with Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil, who stated on September 10 after meeting the seer that the latter had extended support to seeking a separate religion tag under the nomenclature “Lingayat” and not “Lingayat-Veerashaiva”.
This was subsequently denied by the mutt authorities, who on September 11 released a statement that the seer had asked the two groups — Lingayat and Lingayat-Veerashaiva — to come together. Yet another statement said the Minister had “twisted” the seer’s statement.
Dismissing these allegations, Mr. Jaamdar said: “It is true that the seer had expressed his support to Mr. Patil, who had visited the mutt for the inauguration of a hospital. Some vested interests are trying to tarnish the image of Mr. Patil by misleading and misusing the seer’s name.”
Mr. Horatti said he would appeal to everyone to henceforth not drag religious heads and seers of mutts into such issues. “The meeting held on Wednesday to arrive at a consensus remained inconclusive and we will meet again soon,” he said, adding that if a consensus cannot be reached, they will continue the agitation.
When some reporters pointed out that the group that advocated for Lingayat-Veerashaiva also had some Congress members and whether they also belonged to the Sangh Parivar, he said: “We do not want to politicise the issue.”
Meanwhile, when contacted by The Hindu, administrative officer of Siddaganga mutt S. Vishwanathaiah said nobody from RSS or Sangh Parivar had visited the mutt.
