Panel to decide on religion tag for Lingayat

DHNS
December 23, 2017

Bengaluru, Dec 23: A seven-member expert committee has been constituted to look into demands for a minority religion tag for the Lingayat and Veerashaiva faiths, even as all three major political parties - the Congress, the BJP and the JD(S) - tread cautiously on the sensitive issue ahead of the Assembly elections.

Retired High Court Justice H N Nagmohan Das will head the committee that has been formed by the Karnataka State Minorities Commission. The committee, sources said, has been given four weeks to examine demands made by various religious groups in this regard and submit a report.

This comes days after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked the minorities commission to look into demands from various political and religious leaders who have sought minority religion status in the Lingayat and Veerashaiva faiths. This is also an indication that the government is in a hurry to draw curtains on this issue, which is considered a political hot potato with polls round the corner.

According to sources, the committee comprises Kannada Development Authority chairman S G Siddaramaiah; Jawaharlal Nehru University Kannada Language chair Purushothama Bilimale; University of Mysore political science professor Muzaffar Assadi; former backward classes commission chairman C S Dwarakanath; journalist Sarjoo Katkar and litterateur Ramakrishna Marathe.

The Veerashaiva and Lingayat camps, comprising leaders from the Congress, have been at loggerheads over the issue. The Veerashaiva group comprises veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, his son and Horticulture Minister S S Mallikarjun and Municipalities Minister Eshwar B Khandre. They hold that Veerashaiva and Lingayat are the same and that the separate religion should be christened Veerashaiva-Lingayat. Veerashaivas say their religion predates 12th-century reformer Basavanna, revered as the founder of the Lingayat faith. Veerashaivas revere a pantheon of holy men.

The Lingayat camp, led by Water Resources Minister M B Patil, Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni and Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy, argues that Veerashaiva and Lingayat are radically different, and the religion must be called Lingayat. This group says it goes by the ideals of Basavanna.

BJP state chief B S Yeddyurappa said his party will side with the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, whereas JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda has accused the ruling Congress of creating a divide among Veerashaivas and Lingayats.

Comments

AK Shetty
 - 
Saturday, 23 Dec 2017

Shows how much religion screwed up modern Indians due to reservation menace. Time to abolish religion based, caste based reservation. Even Ramakrishna mutt tried to call itself a religion few decades ago (mainly for tax purpose I think)

Anonymous
 - 
Saturday, 23 Dec 2017

I think this demand as per constitution is correct . If anybody has reservation , then they should stash their personal opinions in their bags, and check laws first before making looser opinions. why not you idiots then oppose Jain , and Sikhs and Buddhists why to give biased opinions to Lingayats. Are you not biased? why not to strip off all minority status of Christian , Muslims, Jain and Sikhs then ? Correct laws and constitutions first then talk, and stop rubbish
I see lot of government land grab by "Jains" in name of educational institute in all over Karnataka ..anybody asked why they got that as minority benefits ..no ..why 2% percent people of state need 5% land of state to be grabbed ? this is OK and then if other people want to do in their way ...why is this ado ...

Mohan
 - 
Saturday, 23 Dec 2017

Yeah nice time to hit it.elections are just round the corner!!

Congi
 - 
Saturday, 23 Dec 2017

Vatican's Breaking-India mission smelling of success.

Chandan
 - 
Saturday, 23 Dec 2017

It's a internal matter of Kannadigas.

Ganesh
 - 
Saturday, 23 Dec 2017

Lingayat row should end conclude soon, otherwise it may affect in election also

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 12,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 12: Karnataka on Sunday registered 71 COVID-19 deaths, its highest single day count, and 2,627 fresh cases, pushing the tally of infections in the state to 38,843, the health department said.

The total positive cases include 22,746 active cases and 15,409 discharges, the department said in its daily bulletin.

The total active cases include 532 people admitted in the ICUs across the state.

Of the 71 fatalities, a record 45 were reported in Bengaluru alone including the death of 16 day-old baby girl and 17-year-old girl with chronic kidney disease, taking the total mortalities in the city to 274.

Among the districts, where new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 1,525 cases, followed by Dakshina Kannada with 196, Dharwad 129, Yadagiri 120, and 19 in Bengaluru Rural.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 8.39 lakh samples have been tested including 20,050 on Sunday alone, of which 7.80 lakh tested negative.

Other than Bengaluru, five fatalities were reported in Dakshina Kannada, three each in Mysuru, Hassan, Davangere and Belagavi, two each in Haveri and Bagalkote and one each in Dharwad, Koppal, Tumakuru, Vijayapura and Chamarajanagar.

While majority of those who died of coronavirus suffered from Severe Acute Respiratory Illness and Influenza Like Illness, significantly 21 victims did not have any pre-medical conditions while eight were the asymptomatic patients with pre-medical conditions.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 24,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 24: The Karnataka Health Department is likely to shift the 119 accused in Padarayanapura violence to Bengaluru's Haj Bhavan from Ramnagar Jail.

This comes after two accused out of 121, who were shifted to Ramnagar jail, tested positive for coronavirus. They have been shifted to Victoria Hospital.

A ruckus erupted in Padarayanapura on Sunday allegedly over the shifting of 15 secondary contacts of corona positive patients to a quarantine facility by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials.

Padarayanapura is recognised as a 'red zone'. When BBMP officials went to shift the suspected COVID-19 patients, some people created a ruckus, broke a barricade and removed the police post in the area.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 19,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 19: In order to boost the Coast Guard's (CG) surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities on the country's west coast in Karnataka, CG OPV Varaha and CG Dornier 785 ex Kochi were pressed to service to undertake extensive surveillance.

"Both seawards and aerial surveillance of Karnataka coast line will be undertaken from Sunday," said S Babu Venkatesh, Commander, Coast Guard, Karnataka. The surveillance will be an air-sea coordinated operation.

The Coast Guard ships and aircraft maintained extensive search in the area for intercepting any suspect vessel. Indian Coast Guard ships classified various contacts in the area and kept them under constant surveillance.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.