Followers of Basaveshwara urged to mention Lingayat as their religion in survey

The Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha has urged the followers of Basaveshwara to register their religion as Lingayat in the religion column during the Socio-Economic Survey by the Karnataka State backward Classes Commission starting Monday.

Mahasabha Sate vice-president Basavaraj Bulla and district president Prabhuling Mahagaonkar, addressing presspersons here on Sunday, said that in 2017 the State government set up a seven-member expert committee headed by the former High Court judge H.N. Nagmohan Das to evaluate proposals seeking to consider Lingayats as a religious minority.

The State Cabinet decided to accord “religious minority” recognition to Lingayats and Veerashaiva-Lingayats to the followers of Basaveshwara and urged the Centre to notify the status under the Central Minority Commission Act, they said.

Mr. Bulla claimed that the Central government rejected the State’s proposal seeking minority religion status for Lingayat community by giving lame and untrue reasons that if the Lingayats are treated as a religious group by providing a code other than Hindu, all members of the Scheduled Castes professing the religion will lose their status as Scheduled Castes and also, they will be deprived of benefits.

However, Mr. Bulla and Mr. Mahagaonkar disagreed with the Centre’s contention that Scheduled Castes will lose benefits if Lingayats are given religion status.

They appealed to the people that registering their religion as Lingayat in religion column during the upcoming survey is crucial to gaining religious minority status for Lingayats.