Minority Position

Siddaramaiah has survived the threat of a rift in his cabinet by recognising the Lingayats as a religious minority. But this may not be the end of his troubles.

- Ajay Sukumaran

A tweet and a political feat—bet­ween these two separate events in a week’s span appeared some cracks that Karnataka’s ruling Congress has struggled to paper over. The first was a loud complaint about the selection of candidates, not uncommon in election season, and yet surprising because it came as a tweet by senior Congress lea­der M. Veerappa Moily’s son. The second event, certainly more politically significant and risky, was Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s decisive move to recognise the large and powerful Lingayat community as a ­religious minority.

In the run-up to Monday’s announcement on Lingayats, there was enough rumbling to suggest the Congress was in a tricky position. The key issue—one that has been debated endlessly over the past year—was whether the Lingayats and Veerashaivas, who form a significant section of the state’s electorate, were to be seen as distinct from each other after long years of a synonymous coexistence. While pressure mounted from religious seers arrayed on both sides of the ­argument, there were indications that prominent Lingayat ministers in Siddaramaiah’s cabinet like M.B. Patil, S.S. Mallikarjun, Vinay Kulkarni and Eshwar Khandre too stood divided on the issue.

“No, they are not divided; the decision was unanimous,” Karnataka law minister T.B. Jayachandra told