The demand to treat the dominant Lingayat-Veerashaiva community in Karnataka as a separate religion is decades old. But the demand, one of the reasons for divisions within the community, is being given a fresh push by the Siddaramaiah government. With Assembly elections just months away, five Lingayat ministers in the Congress Cabinet have set out to collect opinion in favour of the demand.
That CM Siddaramaiah has many political tricks up his sleeve has been demonstrated time and again. The attempt to create a separate flag for Karnataka was one of them. His tactical support to the call to delink Lingayats from the majority Hindu community is another. Both have only one aim—putting the BJP on the mat. All said and done, the separate religion gambit may actually help the Congress exploit divisions within the community and succeed in weakening the support base of BJP’s Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat. Desperate times call for desperate measures. But the party, in the interest of maintaining peace and harmony in the state, must realise the dangers of playing with religious sentiments.
Lingayats, who constitute about 17 per cent of the population by some estimates, are one of the two dominant castes in the state, but by no means can they be considered a homogenous entity. There are groups and sects within, and many of the powerful Lingayat mutts with huge following are on the opposite sides of the ongoing separate religion debate. Any attempt to fan the embers of the simmering divide could prove dangerous.
Rousing religious sentiments for electoral gains is a game that politicians are adept at playing. Whether Lingayats should get a separate religion status or not is a matter to be discussed and decided by the leaders and members of the community. Political parties and the government should stay away from the discourse. Any attempt to reap short-term political dividends from the sensitive issue reeks of opportunism, and may, in the end, backfire.