Karnataka MP and Minister in the B.S. Yeddyurappa government in the State from 2008 to 2009 and again from 2010 to 2013, Shobha Karandlaje spoke on the recommendation by the Siddaramaiah government that minority status be accorded to the Lingayat community.

Who is to create and define a religion? Is it the job of a government? No. The Indian Constitution has no such provision in the duties that it enjoins on governments. What should be termed a religion, what should its rituals be, what mode of worship it should follow is not the job of a government; that is something that organically springs from society, philosophy, thinking, and the work of saints.

For any community, caste or religion to be examined, shouldn’t there be a representative of someone who belongs to that community? There is not a single Lingayat or Veera Shaiva community member in that committee. How are we to then believe that all aspects of the situation have been examined? Whose expertise has this committee depended on to reach its conclusions, whose depositions were accorded importance? What is the basis of Nagamohan Das’ authority to pronounce on this issue of declaring that Lingayats are a different religious community? In Dakshina Kannada, most of us don’t know the intricacies of the Lingayat community or the teachings of Basavanna, who we know and rever as a social reformer. For a comprehensive look at the community, there are saints, historians, poets, litterateurs — why were they not asked to go into this question? It is obvious from the way it has been done that it has been done for electoral purposes.

Somebody had presented a memorandum demanding this and he just forwarded it with his signature, asking that it be examined as per norms, which is the usual thing to do as Ministers. He had asked that this issue be examined.

That is very different from the way Mr. Siddaramaiah has expedited the matter. There is no difference between Mr. Siddaramaiah and the British who also sought to divide communities and societies.

Ordinary people feel that Mr. Siddaramaiah has done this to break society, religion, sense of community. To profit from a division in society’s ranks. That’s why I think this will boomerang on Mr. Siddaramaiah.

I wouldn’t comment on what he said normally, but I want to point out that he has expressed regret for his statement and it is not an issue.