Rally seeking minority tag for Lingayat faith held

Demanding minority religion status to Lingayat faith, some religious heads of the Lingayat community and their followers held a rally here on Wednesday.

The rally, held under the banner of Lingayat Dharma Mahasabha, was attended by around 3,000 people who mostly came from Karnataka and Maharashtra.

“Separate religion status should be granted to Lingayat (faith) without any delay,” says Mate Mahadevi of Basava Dharma Peeta. “A large number of people belonging to the Lingayat community are still living in very poor condition. The government should extend facilities to them on the line of other religious minority communities,” she urged.

Expressing unhappiness over the centre rejecting the Karnataka government’s recommendation of granting minority religion status to Lingayats, she said, “The Centre will face the wrath from the community members if it fails to fulfil our long-standing demand.”

Despite the organisers’ claim that prominent leaders from all political parties and MPs from Karnataka will attend the rally, none of them participated.