BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should form an expert committee to look into the demands of a separate religion status for Lingayats, said Water Resources Minister M B Patil, here on Monday.
“We have submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister regarding our demands. As many as 18 court judgements, gazettes and historical works have been quoted to substantiate our stance,” he said.
He further added the expert committee should look into the details provided and accordingly make its recommendations to the State. Subsequently, the issue can be taken up with the Centre.Recognition of Lingayats as a separate religious group should be along the lines of granting the status to Jains in 2013. This will help the community and the various sub-groups get several facilities, he said.
Patil alleged that the founder of Lingayat religion, Basavanna could not get his due popularity because of the past conspiracies.
“Basavanna should have been known to the world like Buddha or Jesus. But, concerted efforts ensured that his messages remained restricted to local level,” he said.
“The followers of the religion are distributed across five southern States and 90 per cent of Lingayats support the demand for a separate religion tag,” he added.