Shah to meet important pontiffs from Lingayat mutts, including the 111-year-old Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga.
Bengaluru: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah begins a three-day trip to Karnataka today to meet top seers of the Lingayat community, hoping to ensure the influential group does not dump the party for the Congress in the assembly elections due by May.
The BJP has been alarmed since the Siddaramaiah government decided this month to grant separate religion status to Lingayats, the largest caste group in the state at 17 per cent of the population and traditionally BJP voters.
On his visit, Shah will meet important pontiffs from the various mutts, including the 111-year-old Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga, a prominent Lingayat spiritual guru. The powerful mutt in Tumakuru has already appreciated the state government’s decision to give the religious minority tag to Lingayats while restricting it to the section largely comprising the OBCs and Dalits who converted to the Lingayatism propounded by Basavanna or Basaveshwara.
Shah will also meet the pontiffs of the Sirigere and Murugarajendra mutts, among others.
‘No political motive’
However, the BJP insists Shah’s trip should not be seen in light of the Lingayat decision.
“It is Rahul Gandhi who does temple runs for the sake of elections,” said Karnataka BJP spokesperson Malavika Avinash. “The BJP in general, and adhyaksh ji in particular, has always paid its respects to religious leaders, visited temples on a regular basis, elections or no elections,” she added.
Even so, she reiterated that the government’s decision was divisive. “The (All India) Veerashaiva Mahasabha is clearly against the decision. All stakeholders need to be brought on board, consulted and deliberated with,” Avinash said. “Siddaramaiah can’t shrink it for his poll needs.”
What does the BJP fear?
The BJP did not see the Lingayat decision coming. Now, the party is looking to influence the mutts, which have largely been loyal to the party, to take a stand against the Congress government’s decision.
The BJP has maintained that the move was aimed at dividing the Hindu community and specifically the Lingayats.
The Lingayat community has traditionally backed the BJP, particularly its chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa, who belongs to the community. Given their share in the state’s population, they are crucial to the electoral prospects of any party. The BJP is banking heavily on this vote bank and cannot afford a divide ahead of the assembly elections.
The Congress conundrum
It’s not like the decision is playing out entirely in the Congress’ favour, with not just the opposition but several voices from within the Lingayat community criticising it.
The decision was based on the recommendation of an expert committee, and refers to Lingayats as well as those Veerashaivas who follow Basavanna. Though often referred to synonymously, Veerashaivas as a group predate Lingayats, with both holding different views vis-a-vis caste and other matters of faith. They are now seen as a subset of Lingayats.
Retired bureaucrat Dr S.M. Jamdar, the convenor of the campaign to seek a separate religion status for Lingayats, called the government’s decision a “double game and nothing but political posturing”.
“The government has given scope to all the Veerashaivas to follow Basavanna and be called Lingayat and get a minority tag,” he said.
“How can they say they are similar to us? Our founder is Basavanna, their founder is Renukacharya. Our holy books are different; ours are based on the vachanas, theirs is the ‘Siddhantha Shikhamani’. Most of our rituals are different,” he added.
The All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, a body that believes in the unity of the Veerashaivas as well as Lingayats, has made it clear that they reject the proposal of the Karnataka government, saying the decision needed to be revised to include the entire community.
“The state should say that the Veerashaivas and the Lingayats are the same. The government shouldn’t create difference between communities. It is evident it is being done for electoral reasons and the Veerashaivas are not fools,” said N. Thipanna, vice-president of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha.
Clever by half?
Siddaramaiah may have seen this as the perfect opportunity to try and swing the Lingayat votes in his favour, but political analyst Mahadev Prakash feels the chief minister may have created more hurdles for himself.
“If you look at the grassroots level, all Lingayats and Veerashaivas behave in a similar way,” he told ThePrint.
“It is a misconception… that this decision… will hurt the BJP in a very big way and that the Lingayat votes may go to the Congress. Traditionally, the Lingayats are anti-Congress and they will continue to be so.’’
Professor Narendar Pani of the National Institute of Advanced Studies pointed out that despite the differences, neither the Lingayats nor the Veerashaivas had opposed the tag itself.
“This clearly indicates that there is no reason for an alternative discourse. Let one major Veerashaiva or Lingayat group come out opposing the minority tag,” he said.