After Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said the history of Tipu Sultan will be erased from textbooks, a new expert panel will be set up by the state government to review the matter.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister of the state S Suresh Kumar on Saturday (November 2) said the proposed committee will be decommissioned because they could not submit a report. As of now, there are no experts in the Karnataka Textbook Society to take a decision on whether to further continue the history of the 18th-century ruler of Mysuru in the school curriculum.
Suresh Kumar said that members of the proposed committee would soon be decided and the first meeting will be held on November 7. He said that the new panel will constitute of subject experts who will remain neutral over the issue.
Removing references of Tipu Sultan
The Tipu Sultan row had started after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power. Recently, BJP MLA from Madikeri Appachu Ranjan had written to Minister Suresh Kumar asking to remove all references on Tipu Sultan from history books saying that Tipu was anti-Hindu and had converted a huge number of Hindus, Christians and had massacred Kodava people.
After Yediyurappa took oath as the Chief Minister this year, he had banned Tipu Jayanti celebrations which was celebrated on November 10 every year from 2015. The CM on October 30 said that lesson on Tipu Sultan should be removed from history 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 move by the saffron party. Opposition leader Siddaramaiah said erasing Tipu'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.
