Lingayat issue triggers a Patil vs Patil conflict

VIJAYAPURA

: After home minister

MB Patil

slammed his cabinet colleague DK Shivakumar for apologising over the controversial issue of demanding a separate religion for the Lingayats, the minister’s followers tried to browbeat BJP MLA

AS Patil

, aka

Nadahalli

, raking up the same matter on Saturday.


Even as Nadahalli was addressing the media, supporters of Patil and those from the

Lingayat

committee, seeking a separate identity for the community, gheraoed him at a private hotel. They shouted slogans against him before police rushed in and whisked them away.

Undeterred by the sudden development, Nadahalli claimed he had got life threats from Patil’s followers. “I will not be cowed down by all these threats. But I will meet police and file a complaint against the attackers, and will also explore of meeting speaker KR Ramesh Kumar,” he added.

The trigger for the incident was Nadahalli’s stand on the Lingayat issue. He is of the opinion that Lingayats and Veerashaivas are one and the same. Nadahalli had accused the home minister of trying to cause a discord in the Lingayat community by seeking a minority religion tag.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar in Bengaluru declined to react to MB Patil’s outburst against him. “I have the freedom to air my views. My stand on the Lingayat issue is a personal one. I come from a village and don’t understand the niceties of the city,” he said.

MB Patil had questioned Shivakumar for apologising on behalf of the Siddaramaiah government on the Lingayat issue.

“Who gave power to Shivakumar to apologise on behalf of the Congress. Why did he issue such an embarrassing statement? I will bring this to the notice of Congress high command,” MB Patil had said on Friday.

The home minister also wondered why Shivakumar apologized when the party or government had nothing to do with the separate Lingayat religion agitation. “And who is he to apologize? He was not the party president then,” he said.