Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa today asserted that his government is contemplating over expunging references to Tipu Sultan from the textbooks. Yediyurappa said that Tipu Sultan was not a freedom fighter and he doesn’t deserve a place in the school textbooks.
Karnataka Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa: About Tipu Jayanti, we are going to drop everything and we are also thinking to drop everything in the textbooks about him. pic.twitter.com/sAGcsqOUVv
— ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2019
“We are going to take decision. We are not going to allow such things to happen. We are going to withdraw everything,” the CM said while talking to media.
Following the statement by Yediyurappa, Karnataka BJP tweeted saying that the “textbooks must be rewritten to portray the real Tipu Sultan to our Children”. They added that children “should be made aware of the Tyrant’s cruelty against Hindus & his anti Kannada rule.”
By ending public celebrations of Tipu Jayanti, CM @BSYBJP has restored dignity to Kannadigas.
As the next step, textbooks must be rewritten to portray the real Tipu Sultan to our Children.
They should be made aware of the Tyrant’s cruelty against Hindus & his anti Kannada rule. https://t.co/kp9bb1FR2o
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) October 30, 2019
The controversy surrounding Tipu Sultan was reignited by Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa ahead of the Tipu Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan observed in November. “Never Tipu Jayanti – we are going to drop everything, even in textbooks also – that also we are thinking,” Yediyurappa said.
According to reports, the controversy was brewing from the last couple of days after a BJP MLA from Madikeri, Appachu Ranjan wrote a letter to the state education minister saying that Tipu Sultan is not portrayed in the right manner in the textbooks and thus asking all references to him be removed from the textbooks.
Tipu Sultan has been a polarising figure in the state of Karnataka where people’s opinion about him range from him being a fierce freedom fighter to a tyrannical despot.
The MLA who first suggested to remove Tipu Sultan from school textbooks belonged to Madikeri, a town located in Kodagu region which was an area much affected during the reign of Tipu Sultan. Incidentally, it also witnessed the strongest protests when the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah started celebrating Tipu Jayanti in the state.
Earlier this year, after coming to power in the state, BS Yediyurappa had overturned the previous Congress government’s decision of celebrating Tipu Jayanti by ordering a state-wide cancellation of all Tipu Jayanti celebrations observed in Karnataka.
While the BJP considers Tipu Sultan as a cruel oppressor who committed unspeakable atrocities against his Hindu subjects, the Congress party unwaveringly regard him as a freedom fighter.
