Lingayat as minority religion will not affect quota matrix: scholars

Following the decision by the Karnataka cabinet to make the recommendation to the Centre, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal argued that a separate religion status will result in “all Scheduled Castes in the Veershaiva Lingayat sect losing their constitutional status since Scheduled Castes can only be from Hindu, Buddhist, Sikhs and their sects”.

Experts in Karnataka differ with this view, saying there will be no changes in reservation benefits available to Lingayats and its sub-sects, including SCs.

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“The grant of the status of a religion to Lingayats has no link to reservations for Scheduled Castes or for minorities. The Lingayats will not come out of the reservation category they are classified in because of the grant of a separate religion status, and their reservations will remain intact,” says a former chairman of the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission, C S Dwarakanath, who was on the panel of seven experts on whose report the Karnataka government eventually recommended religion status for Lingayats.

In Karnataka all Lingayats, including Scheduled Castes that have embraced the Lingayat faith, are accorded 5% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions under a category called III-B, which also contains Marathas, Bunts and Christians.

“The Lingayats will remain in the-III B category irrespective of caste or religion and will continue to enjoy existing benefits,’’ Dwarakanath said.

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Lingayat scholar Basavaraj B, a campaigner for the separate religion status, agrees that there will be no change of status in terms of reservation if Lingayats are accorded the status of a minority religion. “The reservation is based on identity and that will continue,” he said. “The BJP and the RSS are opposed to the grant of the status of a separate religion for Lingayats and are trying to create doubts by saying that reservations will be affected. We will be recognised now among the religions of the world,” says Basavaraj, a businessman from Bidar town in the Lingayat heartland.

Scheduled Castes in Karnataka, incidentally, get 15% reservation that is separate from the 5% available to the Lingayat community and its sub-castes under III-B.

While there is apprehension also over whether religion status to Lingayats will result in the edging out of benefits available to Muslims under the II-B category, experts and the state government have stated that these will not be affected.

“Muslims will be the only community in the II-B category and the Lingayats will remain in the III-B category. There is no question of Lingayats encroaching on Muslim reservation,” says Dwarakanath. Muslims have had 4% cent reservation in Karnataka since 1994-1995.

Karnataka Law Minister T B Jayachandra, while announcing the cabinet decision, said the minorities commission and expert panel that studied the Lingayat demand had recommended that the decision for grant of religion status “should not affect existing benefits available to the other religious or linguistic minorities”.

On March 19, the Karnataka government decided to forward to the central government a recommendation for the grant of the status of a “religious minority to the Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat believers of Basava Tattva under section 2(d) of the Karnataka Minorities Act”. The Karnataka government “also decided to forward the same to the central government for notifying under section 2(c) of the Central Minority Commission Act”.