 "Bengaluru: People belongs to Veershaiva Community protesting against the Separate Lingayat religion, which was approved by Karnataka Government in Kalburgi. Photo: PTI")
Rubbishing the claims that the decision to grant a separate religious status to the Lingayat community was Congress’ political agenda, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday reiterated that the “Lingayat faith as a religion is an old one”. The clarification came after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the Opposition camp in the state, accused the Congress of striving to garner the votes of Lingayats, a dominant community in the state, ahead of the Assembly elections likely in April-May.
“The demand to recognise the Lingayat faith as a religion is an old one. What the government has done is the recognition of the fact acknowledged as far back as the Mysore Census of 1871. Those in BJP accusing us of
