While the Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has planned to erase the history of Tipu Sultan from school textbooks in the state, a photo of a visitor's book log is doing rounds on social media where the CM has called the 18th-century ruler a freedom fighter.
A photo of the visitor's book from the tomb of Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur, Gumbaz-e-Shahi allegedly shows an entry made by Yediyurappa, where it is written than Tipu fought for the freedom of India. "Today I have visited the Tipu Sultan Dargah. Tipu Sultan had fought bravely against the British to save our motherland India," read the remarks.
According to the photo, the entry was made in 2012 when he visited Gumbaz-e-Shahi at Ganjam in Srirangapatana. Several politicians from the state including former minister for primary and secondary education and legislator Tanveer Sait and opposition leader Siddaramiah has criticised Yediyurappa for this.
Yediyurappa on Wednesday (October 30) said that the history of Tipu Sultan will be removed from textbooks and such topics must not be included the books as he is not a freedom fighter. Congress leaders of the state have vehemently opposed to this saying that history should not be twisted.
Opposition leader Siddaramaiah said erasing Tipu Sultan's history from textbooks will be tweaking the history. Congress leader VS Ugrappa also slammed the chief minister saying that when Yediyurappa was in Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) he had praised Tipu Sultan.
Congress troubleshooter and former minister DK Shivakumar also slammed the saffron party over Tipu Sultan row saying that President Ram Nath Kovind had praised Tipu Sultan.
Yediyurappa bans Tipu Jayanti celebrations
After Yediyurappa took charge as the state CM he banned Tipu Jayanti celebrations in the state, which was celebrated on November 10 every year from 2015. Now the BJP government has decided to drop the history of Tipu Sultan from history textbooks.
BJP MLA from Madikeri Appachu Ranjan had recently written to the minister of primary and secondary education Suresh Kumar asking to remove all references on Tipu Sultan from history books.
In his letter, Ranjan said that Tipu had converted many Hindus and Christians and had massacred Kodava people. "Bring in concepts of 'desh bhakti', 'desh prema' (patriotism and love for the country) in the textbooks of primary and secondary schools," read his letter.
