Billava community Swamiji berates netas for their use-and-throw policy

Mangaluru: "You have used us and discarded us after your political ends have been met. Now the Billava, Namdhari and Eediga community will not accede to your designs, give us our due recognition and respect, and give our leaders 3 seats each in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Shivamogga…" Swamiji cautioned the political parties.

Addressing a press conference Pranavananda Swamiji said that 'Our youths are rotting in jail or running from pillar to post to get back to their normal lives after years of working for political parties and getting into trouble with the law, now give us our political due. I am particularly not a politically motivated person I am an ascetic denounced every worldly aspect of life, but I am concerned about the society which needs to be politically empowered and through it our community comes into the mainstream of the society"

The Swamiji who has returned after taking up a 45-day, 751-km padayatra from Mangaluru to Bengaluru for uniting the Billava, Namdhari and Eediga communities into one large block of a single community, said his padayatra has met a great deal of success. 'Though the participation in the padayatra was uneven in places like Sirsi, Kumta, Shivamogga, Udupi and different pockets of Dakshina Kannada district the overall participation was good. In Sirsi in a public meeting, there were over 4,000 people and nearly 3,000 people in Kumta and Shivamogga. This could be called one of the largest and most impactful programmes held in recent years in Karnataka towards the unification of any community by a religious leader for a socio-political cause', he elaborated.

Swamiji outlined his pan-south India push towards creating a larger confederation of all castes and communities and Micro OBCs in five states of South India. He said "there are 70 lakh people (out of them 80 per cent voters) in Karnataka belonging to 26 different sub-castes and Micro OBCs which are cohorts of Namdhari, Eediga and Billava communities. But in accordance with the people's representatives act these 75 lakh people do not have enough representation in the legislative assembly or council. In 1986 there were 16 Members of the Legislative Assembly 3 Members of Parliament and 3 MLCs belonging to these communities. I appeal to the government to enter our community into the ST category after a due study made by an expert committee followed by an act of parliament".

Swamiji is serious about his foray into the unification of the community, which can turn around its political fortunes.