K’taka HC directs BJP government to reconsider move to scrap Tipu Jayanti
Team Udayavani, Nov 7, 2019, 9:27 AM IST
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to reconsider its decision to cancel the birth anniversary celebrations of Tipu Sultan, the controversial 18th-century ruler of the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom, but declined to stay the order.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice SR Krishna Kumar, issued the order while hearing a PIL challenging the government’s decision to cancel the November 10 Tipu Jayanti celebrations as a state event.
It directed the government to reconsider its decision in two months.
“It should not look like the decision was taken arbitrarily,” the bench observed, adding that it felt that the state took the decision without considering the reasons mentioned in the previous decisions to celebrate Tipu Jayanti.
The state government told the court that it had not banned private celebrations.
Noting this, the court directed the government to provide protection to such celebrations and ensure peace.
Soon after coming to power in Karnataka, the BJP government had in July scrapped the celebration of Tipu Sultan’s birth anniversary.
The party had been opposing the annual event since it was started by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in 2015.
Recently, a BJP MLA from Kodagu had demanded removal of a lesson on Tipu Sultan from school textbooks, following which the government formed a committee to look into it and submit a report.
BJP and right-wing organisations have been strongly opposing Tipu Sultan, calling the erstwhile Mysore king a “religious bigot”.
Tipu Sultan was considered an implacable enemy of the British East India Company.
He was killed in May 1799 while defending his fort at Srirangapatna against the British forces.
Tipu Sultan, however, is a controversial figure in Kodagu district as the Kodavas (Coorgis), a martial race, believe thousands of their men and women were seized and held captive during his occupation and subjected to torture, death and forcible conversion to Islam.
He was also accused of execution of Mandyam Iyengars in the temple town of Melukote in Mandya district on the day of Diwali as they supported the then Maharaja of Mysuru.
However, the scale of such suppression is disputed by several historians, who see Tipu Sultan as a secular and modern ruler who took on the might of the British.
A few Kannada outfits also call Tipu Sultan “anti-Kannada”, alleging that he had promoted Persian at the cost of the local language.
Udayavani is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest news.
Top News
Related Articles More
Hunasagi: MLA Bairati Basavaraj’s car overturned
Veteran politician S M Krishna hospitalised, undergoing treatment for ‘minor ailment’
Repolling held peacefully at one polling booth in Chamarajanagar LS segment in Karnataka
Ramanagara: Five students swept away by currents in Cauvery river
JD(S) to suspend Prajwal Revanna, says Kumaraswamy
MUST WATCH
Latest Additions
ISRO releases ISSAR 2023 report on vulnerability of space assets to collisions
Hunasagi: MLA Bairati Basavaraj’s car overturned
No CM can remain absent for long, it’s against national interest: Delhi HC on Kejriwal
Cricket for the Blind: A Transformative Journey Empowering Visually Impaired Athletes
China lifts restrictions, gives all clear nod for Tesla cars as Musk lobbies hard in surprise visit to Beijing