Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, the influential Hindutva leader and Vijayapura MLA (recently expelled from the BJP), has issued a compelling plea to the Veerashaiva Lingayat community: embrace your identity as Hindus. He warns that failing to do so could jeopardize their access to vital reservation benefits.
“If we choose not to identify as Hindus but as something else, we risk losing all our reservation benefits,” Yatnal stated emphatically during a press interaction.
Yatnal, a former Union Minister and one-time working president of the Panchamsali Lingayat Reservation Agitation Committee, shared his views with reporters in Harugeri, Chikkodi taluk.
He expressed concern over certain organizational leaders who are encouraging Veerashaiva Lingayats to register ‘Lingayat’ as their religion and sub-caste. “These groups are employing dramatic tactics, suggesting this will lead to special recognition as an independent religion. However, it’s crucial to understand that such recognition doesn’t exist yet. The Constitution currently acknowledges only six faith groups, and reservation benefits are exclusively extended to members of these recognized groups. Until an official declaration is made, there’s no practical advantage in listing Lingayat as a religion,” he clarified.
“Basavanna championed reforms within Hindu society; he did not establish a new religion. I want to make it unequivocally clear that Basavanna was not a founder of any religion, but solely a reformer.”Basanagouda Patil Yatnal,Vijayapura MLA
Yatnal cautioned that those who mislead the Veerashaiva Lingayats into identifying solely as Lingayats and not Hindus are inadvertently harming their children’s future. He highlighted that some Lingayat communities already fall under Category 2A precisely because they are considered integral castes within Hinduism.
He further reiterated his stance that Basavanna was a reformer who tackled superstitions within Hindu society, not the founder of a new religion. “Some individuals mistakenly attribute the founding of a religion to Basavanna. This is incorrect. He was a great reformer, nothing more. Certain vested interests are pushing this narrative to create a new religious identity,” Yatnal asserted.
He concluded by stating that unless the Central government formally declares Veerashaiva Lingayat as an independent religion, adopting such an identification remains illogical and potentially detrimental.
Yatnal also dismissed the State government’s ongoing caste census as a futile exercise. He accused the Congress government of intentionally prolonging the census and its associated confusions to complete its term, claiming they are neglecting actual development work. He further alleged that including Kuruba Christians and Lingayat Christians is a deliberate tactic by the Congress to inflate minority numbers in the state, predicting that the Congress would not secure another term in Karnataka.