New Delhi: To neutralise the Congress strategy to split the BJP's Lingayat-Veerashaiva vote bank in the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka by recommending religious minority status for Lingayats and not Veerashaivas, the Centre is expected to adhere to the previous Congress led UPA government's view in 2013 that there's no difference between the Lingayat and Veerashaiva-Lingayat communities.
A Union home ministry spokesperson said a decision on the issue is not expected anytime soon as the model code of conduct for the Karnataka polls is in force.
However the Home Ministry on Thursday, had forwarded Karnataka government's politically sensitive proposal to grant religious minority status to the sizeable Lingayat -Veerashaiva/Lingayat communities to the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
This move comes after the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka sent a recommendation to the Centre to accord Lingayats a separate religion tag, to make them eligible for minority status. By merely toeing the precedent set by the Congress led UPA government in 2013 and putting the blame on them, the BJP which relies heavily on the Lingayat community in Karnataka to up its poll prospects, is trying to ensure that the Congress does not draw any political advantage even if the Centre does not act on the Siddaramaiah government's recommendation.
The BJP is also expected to contend that the latest recommendation by Mr Siddaramaiah is intended to split the Lingayat-Veerashiava community and secure separate religion status only for the Lingayat community excluding the Veerashaiva Lingayats.
The UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh had, in 2013, rejected the demand for granting separate religion status to Veerashaiva-Lingayats. The office of the Registrar General of India (RGI), in its communication, to then Home Minister (Sushil Kumar Shinde) on November 14, 2013, said, "the demand made by All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha for treating Veerashaiva-Lingayat as independent religion is apparently not logical and correct."
Meanwhile, Home Ministry officials said the issue was examined by the office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner after the state government sent the proposal a few days ago but realised that this particular issue was handled by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
“The office of RGI looks into various religions and people belonging to them for the purpose of census and other data. But the final decision of granting the status of a religious minority has to be taken by the Minority Affairs Ministry so the proposal has been forwarded to them,” a senior official said. The Karnataka State cabinet had approved this proposal and sent it to the Centre for formal clearance.
The BJP has been claiming that by recommending separate religion tag for the Lingayat community, the Siddaramaiah government is trying to put the BJP-led union government on the back foot by asserting that they had done their bit recommending religion status but the Centre squashed it. So far, the BJP had refused to take a stand on the contentious issue and accused the Siddaramaiah government of dividing the community for political gains.
Who’s Shah to decide?: — S. M. Jamdar, retired IAS officer
“For the last whole week, BJP National President Amit Shah has been openly canvassing that BJP will not allow a recognition to Lingayats. I am asking who is Amit Shah? Is he government of India, is he PM of India, is he chairman of national minority commission? What authority does he have to make such public statements. Under these circumstances his statements are totally biased and prejudiced against Lingayats. And if government of India rejects, we have to presume that NDA government had been influenced by Mr Shah.”
