Bengaluru: The Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha (JLM) has cautioned the Centre of an agitation across six States (where the community members are spread) if their demand is not met and if the proposal by the Karnataka government on this issue is not accepted. The JLM is fighting for religious minority status for Lingayats.
The JLM leaders described the resolutions passed by the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha (ABVM) on Friday as a bunch of contradictions.
The ABVM has opposed the State government’s notification identifying “Lingayat and Veerashaiva-Lingayats [believers of Basava Tatva]” as “religious minority” and sought the tag under the nomenclature of “Veearshaiva Lingayat.” S.M. Jamadar, secretary general of JLM, on Saturday, said that ABVM was no more a representative body of the entire Lingayat community and it was JLM which had succeeded in its struggle to get the minority status.
With the State government issuing notification on granting the minority status, the ball is now in the court of the Union government.
“Failure on the part of the Centre to honour our justified demand would lead to Lingayats, across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, launching an agitation,” Jamadar cautioned.
