No other decision by the Siddaramaiah-led government of Karnataka has over the past five years generated as much controversy as the move in March to grant Lingayats the status of a minority religion ahead of assembly elections, seen by critics as an attempt to divide Hindu votes.
The man who led the campaign for Lingayats to be recognised as a minority community is MB Patil, the irrigation minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet and a polarising figure in Karnataka politics. His opponents said he had stoked the move for personal gain, citing the clutch of education Lingayat institutions Patil runs. Minority educational institutions are exempt from the Right to Education Act and receive other benefits from the government.
Patil is back in Babaleshwar, his pocket borough, to defend it in the May 12 polls. In the constituency itself, there is little mention of the move to categorise Lingayats and Veerashaivas as a minority religion. The issue in the predominantly rural constituency is water, and Patil’s popularity stems from ensuring enough of it for farmers .
“Many people visit us here nowadays because of Patil, but they seem to want to talk about only the Lingayat issue. But we farmers need water for our crops and that’s all we care about,” said 65-year-old Ramugouda, who grows grapes on his 10-acre plot on the outskirts of Babaleshwar town.
In the arid regions of Mumbai-Karnataka that border Maharashtra, water forms the basis of all political talks.
“I am myself a Lingayat and I feel they shouldn’t have divided Lingayats and Veerashaivas. If there is one thing I will hold against Patil, it is this. But then he is the same person who has ensured water for irrigation, which is more important for me,” Ramugouda said.
From building canals to filing around 200 lakes and tanks in the area to the Krishi Bhagya Scheme to construct farm ponds, farmers point to the primacy Patil has given to water. In fact, between 2014-15 and 2017-18, of the 203,152 ponds constructed across the state, 16,130 were built in Vijayapura district alone, the highest number in the state.