Lingayat seer Mate Mahadevi’s deadline for Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah to move the Centre on separate religious status for the community elapsed on Saturday, even as an expert committee formed to look into the matter awaited its first meeting.
The Karnataka State Minorities Commission set up the committee on December 22.
CS Dwarakanath, former chairman of the state Backward Classes Commission and a member of the expert committee, said, “I have been intimated that the first meeting could be held on January 8.”
Mahadevi, the influential pontiff of the Basava Dharma Peetha, said although the deadline had elapsed, she welcomed the formation of the committee. “We will place all the documents we have before the committee to ensure it recommends that we be given minority religion status.”
The separate religion demand has divided the dominant Veerashaiva and Lingayat communities, that were till recently considered synonymous.
The Lingayat community traces its lineage to 12th century philosopher Basavanna, whereas Veerashaivas trace their origin back to the Shaivite movement.
Demands for recognising Lingayats as a separate religion got a fillip after the CM announced earlier this year he would make a recommendation to the Centre do so if it was a unanimous demand of the community.
{{/usCountry}}Demands for recognising Lingayats as a separate religion got a fillip after the CM announced earlier this year he would make a recommendation to the Centre do so if it was a unanimous demand of the community.
{{/usCountry}}Siddaramaiah, the Congress chief ministerial face for the assembly polls, has queered the pitch for BJP leader and former CM BS Yeddyurappa with his stand on the issue.
Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat leader and the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the state polls, has refused to back the demand for separate religious status for the community. Incidentally, he had supported a similar demand in 2013, when he was a signatory to a memorandum in this regard sent to then prime minister Manmohan Singh.