‘No comments’: CM Bommai on Siddaramaiah's ‘guilt’ over Lingayat religion issue

Prasanna Veera Someshwara Swamiji of Rambhapuri Mutt, who met former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah on Friday, said that the Congress leader told him about repenting a move made during his regime of giving a separate religious status to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraja Bommai on Sunday ducked questions related to Congress leader Siddaramaiah's alleged repentance on the Lingayat religion issue, news agency ANI reported.

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. (PTI) (HT_PRINT)

“I don't want to comment because I am unaware of the statements made by the duo. But everyone is aware of the reality of what actually occurred in that circumstance,” Bommai told reporters outside Vidhana Soudha, ANI reported.

On Saturday, former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah denied repenting a move taken during his regime of providing separate religious status to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community. His response came after he met Prasanna Veera Someshwara Swamiji of Rambhapuri Mutt on Friday, and later, the seer claimed that Siddaramaiah confided in him about feeling guilty over the issue.

“No, I did not say like that (repenting). I just explained what had happened. I told him (seer) what we had done while planning to give the Veerashaiva Lingayat that status,” Siddaramaiah told reporters in Bengaluru.

The former CM said he did not bother about religion, but it was Davangere South MLA Shamanuru Shivashankarappa, a veteran Congress leader, who submitted to him a memorandum seeking to create Veerashaiva-Lingayat religion. The matter unfolded ahead of the 2018 Karnataka assembly election, and Siddaramaiah drew flak for trying to give Veerashaiva-Lingayat a separate religious status by splitting from Hindu religion. The Congress lost power and it led to a hung assembly as the party got a fractured mandate.

Someshwara said Siddaramaiah “spoke his mind” and told the seer about “repenting” the Lingayat religion issue, claiming some people misled him.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar said there is no harm in confessing to a mistake. “No one is God. There were occasions when God, too, accepts a mistake,” news agency PTI quoted Shivakumar as saying.

Shivakumar further said he was present in the cabinet meeting when the decision to form a separate Veerashaiva-Lingayat sect was taken and had expressed his views on it.

PTI reported that Shivakumar had opposed the move and even reminded Siddaramaiah about the fallout.