hubballidharwad with cm siddaramaiah promising minority status for the lingayat community the issue is a major talking point of the election but away from the heat of polls in dharwad town in north karnataka the widow and son of karnatakas foremost lingayat scholar mm kalburgi are reminding karnatakas netas the irony of invoking basavanna the 12th century philosopher of the lingayat community only at election timekalburgi remembered for his lifelong study of basavanna and writings about lingayat independence from mainstream hinduism was shot dead in his house in august 2015 winner of the sahitya akademi award in 2006 and former vc of kannada university hampi kalburgis killing spurred other sahitya akademi awardees to return their awardsread also follow pm modi rahul gandhi on the campaign trailtoday when every party is paying homage to basava who believed in lingayat independence from hinduism kalburgis family points out that he was killed for the very beliefs parties now endorsemy fathers was a strong firm voice for basavannas philosophy says son shrivijay kalburgi a bengalurubased manager employed in the corporate sector he was killed because of his writings and the way he analysed manuscripts and argued for the cause of lingayat independence from hinduismshrivijay says netas and governments have been forced to recognise the lingayat demand for separateness from hinduism because the lingayat people have realised where they belong due to the efforts of various democratic movements within the communitywe would not like to claim any credit as dr kalburgis family for the recognition of this longstanding demand of the community says shrivijay but yes although my father was killed for his beliefs now those beliefs have been vindicated and proved rightin a quiet colony in dharwad umadevi kalburgi still lives in the house where her husband professor kalburgi was killed surrounded by his books and pictures even his spectacles and mobile phoneshe recalls the day he was killed two shooters came to the door while he was speaking on his cellphone and shot him at point blank range on his verandah my husband lived in the world of ideas he had no enemies until today i dont know why anyone would kill the professorshrivijay says the family clings to the hope that police will find kalburgis killers we are no longer worried about our own safety what more can anybody do to our family the government assures us investigations are on so were hopefulare politicians using basavannas beliefs for votes all his life professor wrote about basavanna his life was committed to making people understand his beliefs and ideas says umadevi i dont think politicians have actually studied basavanna now it is about votes not scholarship of understanding basavannas valuesprofessor gn devy who moved to dharwad after kalburgi was killed remembers his friend as the scholar who had a lifelong engagement with vachana literature which speaks of the lingayat rebellion against sanatan dharma a scholar to his bones he was steeped in vachana literature there had been a threat against them 30 years