Lingayat issue: expert panel seeks six months’ time

This means report is unlikely to be submitted before Assembly polls

The issue of a separate religion tag for the Lingayat community is not likely to reach a conclusion before the Karnataka Assembly elections, with the seven-member expert committee set up by the State government to study the issue having sought six months to submit its report. The committee has also made it clear that it will not submit an interim report.

The committee that met for the first time on Saturday unanimously resolved to seek six months time though the State government had asked it to submit its report within a month. If it was done in a month, the government would have been able to make a recommendation to the Centre, based on it.

“Given the seriousness and importance of the subject, one month is not enough. We have a great responsibility and we want to fulfil it in a scientific manner taking into consideration even the legal aspects. Hence, the committee has decided to seek six months time to submit the report,” said H.N. Nagamohan Das, former Karnataka High Court judge, who heads the committee.

Speaking to reporters after the committee’s meeting, Mr. Das said it was also decided to seek the inclusion of a woman member in the committee. “The last date to submit representations to the committee is January 25. We have received 36 representations so far from individuals, mutts and like-minded organisations. We will study all of them in detail, giving each one equal importance. We will also receive oral representations and the date will be finalised in the next meeting,” he said.

Two camps

Members of the Veerashaiva and Lingayat camps, cutting across party lines, have been at loggerheads over the issue. The Veerashaiva group (comprising senior Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, his son and Horticulture Minister S.S. Mallikarjun, and Municipalities Minister Eshwar B. Khandre) is of the view that Veerashaivas and Lingayats are the same. If a separate religion tag is to be given, it should be called Veerashaiva-Lingayat.

However, the Lingayat camp, led by Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil, Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni, and Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayaraddi, has a different stand. They argue that Veerashaiva and Lingayat are radically different and the religion must be called Lingayat.

The government, under pressure from various groups to take a call on the issue, had set up a committee to study it. On December 22, the Karnataka State Minorities Commission named a seven-member expert committee.

Petitioners appeal to panel head

Shashidhar Shanubhog from Shivamogga — who has filed a PIL plea in the Karnataka High Court stating that five of the seven members nominated to the committee had already expressed their view in public in favour of grant of religion minority status to Veerashaiva Lingayat/Lingayat community, and hence their nomination is unfair — met committee head Nagamohan Das and submitted a memorandum.

He, along with his advocate G.R. Gurumath, met Mr. Das after the meeting and appealed to him to drop the five from the committee.