KOPPAL: With Veerashaivas and Lingayats, who are on a collision course, showing no signs of a rapprochement, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has decided to endorse the demand for a separate religion for Lingayats.
Expressing dismay at the infighting within the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community over the issue, Siddaramaiah on Thursday said that Lingayats and Veerashaivas are unlikely to unite.
Speaking to reporters prior to participating in a Congress function as part of Sadhana Sambhrama Yatra in Kushtagi of Koppal district, he said the appeals for the two groups to evolve a consensus and put up a united effort in the last three months have come a cropper. “There are no positive indications and hence, the state government will soon recommend to the Minority Commission to consider minority status to Lingayats,” Siddaramaiah said.
Meanwhile the Chief Minister maintained that normalcy had returned to Karwar amid reports of a schoolgirl being allegedly being stabbed on the hand by a group of miscreants in Magodi village in Honnavar taluk. He alleged that the BJP was trying to incite communal passions. The state government has sought CBI probe into the death of Honnavar youth Paresh Mesta, he noted.