K’taka Cong leader says govt erred in granting Lingayats minority status

BENGALURU: Karnataka’s water resources minister DK Shivakumar admitted that the Congress should not have interfered in the Lingayat issue in the run-up to the assembly elections this year, the first public admission by a senior Congress leader to the effect.

At a public meeting in Lakshmeshwara in Gadag district in northern Karnataka on Wednesday Shivakumar sought forgiveness for the previous government’s decision. “Our government committed a big mistake. The government and politicians should not interfere in matters of religion and caste. It was a big mistake. If we have erred I want to ask you to forgive us. We should not politicise religion...”

The reaction, from within the Congress itself, was swift.

Former minister and Congress leader MB Patil, who spearheaded the Lingayat movement, said, “There is no question of the government interfering in religious matters and so there is no question of apologising. I don’t know in what context Shivakumar spoke. Secondly, no party was affected by the Lingayat separate religion status,” Patil said.

Patil also questioned Shivakumar’s assertion that the move had backfired on the Congress. Lingayat seer Mate Mahadevi, too, criticised Shivakumar saying he should have expressed his opposition when the decision came before the previous Siddaramaiah government, as he too was a minister then.

Shivakumar made the comments at a public meeting held by the seer of the Balehonnur Rambhapuri Math, who had opposed the Lingayat movement.