Lingayat body says getting araw deal, Congress on backfoot

“Many officers from the community have not been given good posts... our community and its officers are facing trouble,” Shivashankarappa said.

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress in Karnataka is trying to defend its decision after a senior party leader lashed out at the government for sidelining Lingayats in the party. Congress MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who is the president of Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha, the apex body of the Lingayat community, raised his concerns regarding the unfair treatment of the Lingayat community in official postings.

Shamanur Shivashankarappa (ANI)

Shivashankarappa’s remarks struck a chord, particularly with the traditionally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -aligned Lingayat community, who had shifted their allegiance to the Congress during the May assembly elections. With BJP leaders coming in support of the MLA, Congress leaders have been defending the party’s decision.

Shivashankarappa on Sunday said that the Lingayat community has been left helpless. At a community event, he observed that whenever Lingayats were chief ministers—S Nijalingappa, B S Yediyurappa, and Basavaraj Bommai—bureaucrats from the community got plum postings but are getting a raw deal in the Siddaramaiah government. “Many officers from the community have not been given good posts... our community and its officers are facing trouble,” Shivashankarappa said.

Responding to calls for a deputy CM position for a Lingayat leader, he dismissed the idea as pointless, stating, “What can you do with a deputy CM post? If anything, a chief minister should be elected from the community.”

Following this statement, chief minister Siddaramaiah said that his government did not base its policies on caste considerations. “We do not consider caste as a factor when implementing policies… We have implemented welfare schemes such as Shakti, Gruha Lakshmi, and Gruha Jyothi. Can you say they are meant for only a particular caste or one community?” he said.

State Congress president DK Shivakumar acknowledged Shivashankarappa’s leadership within the Lingayat community but mentioned multiple factors, not solely caste, when making government appointments, highlighting the chief minister’s efforts to strike a balance.

“Shivashankarappa is the president of a big community. He has information on which community has representation. Also, it is natural that officials seek good positions in the government, but we cannot decide on placement based on caste. We must take all factors into consideration, and the chief minister is trying to balance equations,” he said.

However, this development has put some Lingayat ministers in a difficult position. Leaders like forest minister Eshwar Khandre, who is also the secretary-general of All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, and Women and Child Development minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar expressed their commitment to addressing the community’s concerns.

“Shivashankarappa is among the tallest leaders of our community. We understand his emotions. There are seven Veerashaiva-Lingayat ministers in Siddaramaiah’s cabinet. We are ready to rectify it if there is an imbalance in terms of ensuring opportunities for all communities. I will talk to the chief minister if the Veerashaiva-Lingayat officials have got a raw deal,” said Hebbalkar.

Khandre expressed his willingness to engage with Shivashankarappa but didn’t give any further details.

Meanwhile, the BJP seized the opportunity to take on the Congress, particularly as they seek to regain the support of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, especially with Lok Sabha elections on the horizon. BJP leaders from the Lingayat community, in response, expressed their support for Shivashankarappa.

“Shamanur said the community’s officers got a raw deal in postings, which is a reality. The solution is for the community to take it up unitedly. I urge all leaders to work in this regard,” Yediyurappa told reporters in New Delhi on Sunday.

Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai demanded an answer to the questions raised by Shivashankarappa. “Shamanur is a senior Congress MLA and president of All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha. The people take his statement seriously. Shamanur has said that even after the chief minister’s clarification, his statement remains unchanged. That means he is very serious,” Bommai said.

The controversy comes as there are fears among the Lingayat community of losing its political prominence amidst the impending implementation of the caste census in the state. Since 2008, five out of the nine Karnataka chief ministers have been from the Lingayat community, owing to the claim of Lingayats being the largest community in the state.

In 2018, certain findings of the caste census conducted in 2015 were leaked, which showed that Lingayats and Vokkaligas were lesser in number than their perceived proportion in the population. According to the leaked report, Scheduled Castes (SCs) accounted for 19.5% of the state’s total population, making them the largest caste group. Muslims followed closely, constituting 16% of the population. Lingayats and Vokkaligas represented 14% and 11% of the population, respectively.

Even though the leaked report gives a glimpse of new political equations in the state, political analysts say that the Congress can’t afford to take the Lingayat community lightly. “As per the leaked caste census, Lingayats and Vokkaligas communities in the state would no longer have numerical superiority. But they also know that SC, ST, and OBCs can’t be looked at as a monolithic group. So can the Congress upset the dominant communities that seem united and supported you in the Assembly election,” said political scientist Sandeep Shastri.