Bengaluru: Working president of pradesh Congress committee, S. R. Patil, on Saturday said that internal bickering in Veerashaiva-Lingayat community over separate religion tag would not impact his party’s prospects in future polls.
Mr Patil told the media here: “Whatever issue raked up within the Lingayat community is purely based on ideological differences between two sects of the same community. Therefore, how can the Congress benefit or lose in this?”
In response to a question, Mr Patil said even the tussle between senior leader, Shamanur Shivashankarappa and water resources minister, M. B. Patil, was nothing more than arguments over ideological differences.
“The 12th century poet and social reformer, Basavanna, too, believed in democratic set up. Therefore he held the world's first parliament in the name Anubhava Mantapa. I come from the district where Basavanna held his parliament sessions frequently. Ideological differences used to crop up then too,” he added.
In response to another question, Mr Patil asserted that he was of the opinion that killing was not an answer for all problems.
“Be it killing of Gauri Lankesh or threat issued to former bureaucrat, Jamdar, I condemn both and I feel taking hardline on any issue will not lead us to the correct path of our life. Instead we need to adopt tougher path of walking on path of truth. It is the only way out for these type of problems,” he added.
