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On 24 December, the Akhila Bharatiya Veershaiva Lingayat Mahasabha (ABVLM) – an umbrella organisation of different Lingayat sects in Karnataka – is expected to hold a massive convention in Davanagere. The Mahasabha will demand Other Backward Class (OBC) status for all the 112 Lingayat sub-castes at the convention.
However, there is another demand of the Lingayats, which they have revived yet again, that will pose a major challenge to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.
The Lingayats still want minority status, two prominent organisations told The Quint. This comes with a serious implication – for the Lingayats to be considered a separate minority religion, the caste group will have to severe their ties with Hinduism and Hindu religious practices.
Senior Lingayat leaders say they are prepared to see this through.
The demand for minority status was raised earlier and supported by the Congress government under Siddaramaiah in 2018.
A Lingayat leader explained where the community now stands:
Meanwhile, another Lingayat organisation, Jathika Lingayat Mahasabha (JLM), has decided to launch an agitation to demand minority status. This organisation, however, will not be part of the Lingayat convention, as they do not support ABVLM's demand for OBC status.
In 2018, Justice HN Nagamohan Das Commission had recommended minority status for Lingayats in Karnataka, even as seers of most Lingayat Mutts raised the same demand.
However, thus far, the BJP has refrained from supporting this demand, even though Lingayats have been the party's traditional voters.
The BJP, which was an Opposition party in 2018, failed to support the demand back then. It was felt that supporting minority status for the Lingayats would have forced the party to deal with the "ire of its Hindu vote base."
The Karnataka Assembly's recommendation was sent to the Centre's Ministry of Minority Welfare in 2018, as granting minority status needed the Union government's nod. The Centre, however, rejected it. The matter then reached the Karnataka High Court.
The BJP government, responded to a petition filed in the HC stating the Lingayats were considered Hindus since the first census of 1871. Due to this longstanding classification, they cannot be reclassified as Hindus, the Centre claimed.
The BJP has several prominent Lingayat leaders who have been lobbying for the community. Even the current Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is a Lingayat.
It is unlikely because the other demand of the Lingayats – classification under OBC list of the Centre – that itself would stand in the way of the minority status.
When The Quint asked the two prominent Lingayat organisations, it became apparent that the community is divided on which demand should be given prominence.
While the Akhila Bharatiya Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha (ABVLM) claimed that they would foreground the demand for OBC status, the Jathika Lingayat Mahasabha (JLM) held that they would want minority status over the OBC classification.
Here's why.
"This demand has the support of all seers of different mutts," said Sachidananda Murthy.
The Jathika Lingayat Mahasabha agreed. "Anyone, even those from marginalised castes, were included under the Lingayat fold because Basavanna believed in social reform. The Lingayats do not believe in the Varna (caste) system," GB Patil said.
However, it is to be noted that Lingayats are now one of the most powerful communities in Karnataka, with their mutts having reserve funds running into crores of rupees. The mutts also run educational institutions and hospitals.
Besides, if the Lingayats are classified as a minority religion, reclassification under the OBC list could prove to be difficult. Mostly historically marginalised castes among the Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists, are classified as OBCs in the Central list.
With the division among Lingayats reaching a crescendo before the Assembly elections scheduled for 2023, the BJP, Congress and JD(S) are expected to appeal to all sects.
In the Veerashaiva convention, representatives of all parties are expected to participate.
Meanwhile, Veerashaiva Lingayat leader Sachidananda Murthy too pledged support for any party that would grant OBC status to Lingayats. "We have approached all the parties and we are hopeful," Murthy said.
Meaning, the BJP will have to discuss the Lingayat question soon, especially since the Congress had once supported the demand for the community's minority status.
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