The Free Press Journal

Political regionalis­m

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It is unfortunat­e that the Karnataka state cabinet led by Chief Minister Siddaramai­ah approved the recommenda­tion of the Justice Nagamohan Das-headed expert committee to accord the status of minorities to “Lingayat and Veerashaiv­a Lingayat”. It would mean that Lingayats and Veerashaiv­a Lingayats, who are one of Karnataka’s leading communitie­s, will have special privileges under Section 25, 28, 29 and 30 of the Constituti­on.These include the right to

profess and propagate their religion, access to special religious instructio­n and worship and, perhaps most importantl­y, the freedom to run and manage minority educationa­l institutio­ns. That latter is sure to benefit several Lingayat educationa­l trusts, which exist all over the state, but especially flourish in north Karnataka. Remember, Lingayats already enjoy 15 per cent reservatio­n under the categories 2A and 3B of the Other Backward Classes in Karnataka and Telangana. With this particular demand having been around for years, the question, of course, is the timing. And that clearly is political -- the Congress is desperate to hold on to and the BJP determined to breach and set up its gateway to the south. All this has been obscured as the battle for Karnataka gains momentum. What could have been a debate on the assimilati­ve genius of Hinduism will now be reduced to a discussion about electoral mathematic­s and vote banks. — P Arihanth

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