Bengaluru, Sept 22: The Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha on Thursday trained its guns on Lingayat seer Mate Mahadevi, in the backdrop of the Supreme Court upholding the state government’s ban on her book on 12th-century reformer Basavanna.
Her book 'Basavana Vachana Deepti' was banned because she changed Basavanna’s pen name from ‘Kudalasangama Deva’ to ‘Linga Deva’. Many more books containing the same “distortion” continue to be sold in the market, Veerashaiva Mahasabha vice-president BS Sachidananda Murthy said, demanding the state government to seize them all.
“There are at least ten other volumes of Basavanna’s vachanas brought out by Mate Mahadevi in which she has used the Linga Deva pen name and they are still available in the market despite a ban,” Murthy said. “We are collecting all these books and we will file cases. We want the government also to act,” he said while flashing one of Mahadevi’s books brought out in 2011. “She is diluting Basavanna’s vachanas which will do only harm to the society.”
In 1997, the State government had ordered a ban and seizure of Basava Vachana Deepti, which it believed could hurt religious sentiments. The ban was upheld by a three-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court in June 2003. The apex court, on Wednesday, dismissed Mahadevi’s petition challenging the ban. The Veerashaiva Mahasabha also became a party in the Supreme Court case, supporting the ban.
Will abide by order: Mate
Mate Mahadevi, the ban on whose book Basava Vachana Deepthi has been upheld by the Supreme Court, said on Thursday that she would abide by the order of the apex court.
On being asked whether the court order was a setback to her, the head of the Basava Dharmapeetha said it was no setback to her. She said all copies of the book had sold before the government banned it and that it would not be reprinted.
‘No change in Mahasabha name’
Days after the warring Veerashaiva and Lingayat camps called truce on the demand for a separate religion, Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha vice-president BS Sachidananda Murthy ruled out including the word ‘Lingayat’ in the organisation’s name. The Lingayat camp for long demanded that the organisation be called Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha, based on a decision that was taken many years ago. “It’s a lie. The name will change only if there’s consensus among all our members,” Murthy said.
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