Deve Gowda slams CM on move to grant religion status to Lingayat

Slamming the Karnataka government for its stand on the demand for declaring Lingayat a separate religion, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Friday said such a decision should be left to the religious leaders of the community.

 Breaking his silence on the row, Gowda said, “The government should not indulge in politics of religion. Let Lingayat religious leaders decide whether they need a separate religion status or not.”

 “The Congress-led government is not sincere on this issue. The government is trying to gain political mileage out of it. Nobody should try to break the unity of any caste, community or religion for political advantage,” Gowda told reporters here. Refusing to accept the state government's justification to accord separate status to Lingayat religion, he said, “People of Karnataka know the motive of the government on the issue.”

Gowda had been maintaining silence on the issue, which had created ripples in political circles.

‘Early elections’
Anticipating early Assembly elections in Karnataka, Gowda said the state government is likely to dissolve the Assembly any time so that the state can go to polls along with Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, which is likely in November or early December.

Many Congress leaders want the Karnataka Assembly elections to be held with other states to keep Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah engaged and shift their focus from Karnataka, he said.

“Since the Karnataka Assembly term ends on May 28, 2018, the state Congress leaders don't want the top leaders of the BJP to spend much time on the state’s elections, he said.