In October, Siddaramaiah, who returned as chief minister after the Congress’ win this year, hailed Kittur Rani Channamma (the queen of a former princely state in Karnataka who rebelled against the British) and Tipu Sultan as “inspirations to fight for self-respect”.
Team Clarion
BENGALURU — Karnataka Congress MLA Prasad Abbayya’s proposal to name Mysuru Airport (also called Mandakalli Airport) after Tipu Sultan has created a controversy in the state.
The statement from the ruling party MLA from Hubballi-Dharwad (East) triggered howls of protest from the opposition BJP, which pitched the ‘Tiger of Mysore’ into a Hindu vs Muslim narrative, against its icon, V.D. Savarkar, ahead of the May election.
“I propose the naming of Mysuru Airport to Tipu Sultan Airport,” Abbayya said during a discussion in the state assembly on changing the names of the airports in the state, media reports said on Friday.
The BJP was trounced in the election, winning just 66 of the state’s 224 seats.
The row over the 18th-century ruler Tipu Sultan — a fierce opponent of British rule in India dates back to 2016, when the then Congress government led by Siddaramaiah began celebrating his birthday on November 10.
Since then, Tipu Sultan has been invoked repeatedly by the BJP and fringe right-wing outfits — in both Karnataka and neighbouring Maharashtra — in a bid to polarise voters; in June, some Hindu outfits staged violent protests over social media posts on the Mysuru king and Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, an NDTV report said.
In the build-up to the 2023 assembly election the BJP’s state boss Nalin Kateel, went all-out, it seemed, to trigger division among voters on this subject, including urging locals to “kill… followers” of the ruler.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah also attacked the Congress, and the row over Tipu Sultan saw clashes before polling, including one in Yadgir after a traffic signal was renamed after Savarkar.
There was also fresh controversy over who killed Tipu Sultan.
Historians believe he died in the 4th Anglo-Mysore War, in 1799. Before this election, though, there were claims from some sections that he was killed by two chieftains from the Vokkaliga community.
The Vokkaligas are a politically powerful section, forming nearly 16 per cent of the state’s population, that hasn’t always voted in favour of the BJP, and didn’t this year either.
Ahead of the 2018 election too, the BJP dug out Tipu Sultan; BS Yediyurappa slammed the Congress’ move as a “gimmick” to appease Muslims, who were then 13 per cent of the total population.
In October, Siddaramaiah, who returned as chief minister after the Congress’ win this year, hailed Kittur Rani Channamma (the queen of a former princely state in Karnataka who rebelled against the British) and Tipu Sultan as “inspirations to fight for self-respect”.
