-R Guruprasad from Karnataka-
There seems to be no end to Karnataka Government’s Muslim appeasement tactics! Despite severe protests across Karnataka, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress Government is all set to organise the Tipu Jayanti on November 10. This is being organised despite two innocent people had lost their lives during the 2015 Jayanti.
This year, the pressure is mounting on the Congress Government to call off the Jayanti. Yet, the Government is adamant and in fact has released Rs 69 lakh to each of the districts for “grand celebration”. On this issue, the Congress Government has been slammed by all the quarters. For example, hearing a PIL on November 2, Karnataka High Court said that Tipu was not a freedom fighter and wanted to know from the Government as to what were the
benefits of organising Tipu Jayanti.
Even historians like Ramachandra Guha in a newspaper interview said there should not be any celebration of monarchs. Another popular writer Shashi Deshpande slammed the Karnataka Government saying she did not see any reason for the Tipu Jayanti. According to her Tipu Jayanti was a waste of money, just politically motivated, done with an eye on the vote bank?
Technology investor and Padma Shri awardee T V Mohandas Pai termed the Karnataka Government’s plan to
celebrate Tipu Jayanti was like
celebrating the anniversary of Aurangzeb, “who was a tyrant Mughal Emperor and a staunch religious
fundamentalist.” Pai also stated that Government is playing politics over Tipu Jayanti and urged it to celebrate anniversaries of benevolent rulers like the Wadiyars and Mysuru Diwan Mirza Ismail. Let them also celebrate Sir Visvesvaraya, the greatest engineer we ever had,” he said adding, “The government, which is there to rule the entire State, they must never do something which divides people-divides Coorgis, Mangalurean Christians other communities,” he said. They should instead bring different communities together.
Pai said he feels offended that
Government would celebrate Tipu Jayanti who was a “bigot and tyrant”, who killed people of different
communities and converted people to Islam. “I am a Konkani and I feel very offended that the Government is
celebrating somebody (Tipu) who did wrong to both communities.” Pai alleged that Tipu Sultan butchered Coorgis and the Christians living in Kodagu and Kerala, and also destroyed Konkani
temples near Sultan Bathery and Kasargod, in Kerala. “The Coorgis still have anger against him. In Mangaluru, the Christian community are angered because some 26,000 Catholics were put in dungeons,” he said. “He destroyed Konkani temples near Sultan Bathery and Kasargod,” he added. BJP and RSS have opposed the “Tipu Jayanti” celebrations. RSS had stated recently it opposed the celebration and it would stage protests against it as the ruler of the erstwhile Mysore kingdom was a “religious bigot and a violent sultan”.
Protests have already begun across Karnataka. On November 3, hundreds of women had gathered at Chitradurga (a district headquarters located 200 kilometres from Bengaluru) holding pestles and opposing Tipu Jayanti. Even Christians from coastal Karnataka too have said no to the celebration. Tipu is still considered as a villain for his
atrocities.
Historians who have done extensive study on Tipu’s life and times say that the so called Tipu’s generous image was actually a distorted one. Tipu is
considered to be a bigot as he tried every attempt to convert Hindus to Muslims and wanted to rule an Islamic state. Even today, Kodagu, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have folk stories that talk about Tipu’s atrocities. According to Late PCN Raja in his book ‘Religious
intolerance of Tipu Sultan’, there were enough atrocities committed by Tipu Sultan. The book says that in one of his campaigns, he had forcibly converted around 10,000 Hindus to Islam while in another instance; he imprisoned another 1,000 Coorgies and imprisoned them when they refused to convert. The main targets of Tipu Sultan’s atrocities were Hindus and Hindu temples.
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