Bengaluru: Sangh Parivar had conspired and succeeded in getting Siddaganga Mutt seer Shivakumara Swami to change his stand on the support for separate religion tag for Lingayats.
“While we do not question the authority and supremacy of the seer as it is his discretion to change or modify his stand, this is a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar. Prior to the developments, a politician had said in the media to wait for two days and see. We do not know if this is what he meant,” former IAS officer S.M. Jaamdar said on Thursday.
The members, also including Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni, legislators B.R. Patil and Basavaraj Horatti, were unanimous in expressing solidarity with Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil, who stated on September 10 after meeting the seer that the latter had extended support to seeking a separate religion tag under the nomenclature Lingayat and not “Lingayat-Veerashaiva.
This was subsequently denied by the mutt authorities, who on September 11 released a statement that the seer had asked the two groups — Lingayat and Lingayat-Veerashaiva — to come together. Yet another statement said the Minister had “twisted” the seer’s statement.
Dismissing these allegations, Jaamdar said: “It is true that the seer had expressed his support to Mr. Patil, who had visited the mutt for the inauguration of a hospital. Some vested interests are trying to tarnish the image of Patil by misleading and misusing the seer’s name.”
