Bengaluru: Even as campaigning for the coming Lok Sabha elections came to and end yesterday, a political row erupted over the separate religious tag for the Lingayats in Karnataka. Karnataka goes to polls during the first phase on 18 April.
The ruling party at the Centre, BJP, shared a letter written by then minister M B Patil to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi in July 2017 on social media, and it received a strong condemnation from the opposition party Congress.
A complaint has been registered with the CEO by the Congress against the BJP state president and several other party leaders. Also a police complaint would be made and ask the Cyber Crime Cell of police to investigate and bring the miscreants behind the fake letter to book said the Congress, according to a media report.
The letter, which had the letterhead of BLDE Association, gave a roadmap to win the assembly elections in 2018 by dividing Hindu society by giving a separate religious tag for the Lingayat sect in the State. Patil has, however, claimed that the letter was fake.
Speaking at a press conference, Karnataka Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao defended Patil’s claims and said the BLDE letterhead itself was fake as there were several spelling mistakes in it.
He further slammed the BJP saying that the ruling party in fear of losing the coming elections were conspiring against Congress by spreading fake information
“This is nothing but political promiscuity. I believe that people will give a befitting reply to such malpractices,” he stated.
The BJP state party president B S Yeddyurappa while speaking to reporters quoted from the letter and he alleged that Congress leaders were part of a conspiracy to divide society and the country.
Patil in 2017 was at the forefront of recommending separate religious minority tag for the Lingayat sect, founded by social reformer Basaveshwara in 12th Century AD.
Later, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in January passed a resolution recommending the Centre to grant religious minority tag for the Lingayats. In December 2018, the Centre told the Karnataka High Court that it has communicated to the State government that it cannot accept the proposal, stating that the Lingayats were treated as Hindus since the first census in 1871.