New IndPress
Bangalore, Sep 23: With mounting pressure on the Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to sack Higher Education Minister D H Shanakramurthy for dubbing Tippu Sultan as “anti-Kannada”, noted litterateurs from the State urged the coalition partner JD(S) to sever ties with the BJP to protect secular harmony in the State.
Playwright Girish Karnad termed the Minister's views on Tippu “incorrect” and said that evidence exists to prove that Tippu used Kannada extensively in his dispatches.
At a press conference on Thursday he accused Shankarmurthy of disturbing communal harmony in the state. Reacting to the Minister's offer for a public debate on the issue, Karnad said that he was willing to take the challenge.
“Shankarmurthy's views are historically incorrect,” Karnad said and asked him to reveal the sources based on which he had made the statement.
Karnad pointed out that in his correspondence with the British Tippu used Persian instead of English for which he had a strong distaste. There is no need to drag Tippu to display one's commitment to Kannada, he said without taking Shankarmurthy's name.
Blaming the JD (S) for keeping quite on the issue, Karnad asked them not to become a party to BJP's stand on controversial issues like Tippu and Datta Jayanti.
“They (JD-S) should review ties with the BJP and come out of the government,” he urged.
On Datta Jayanti celebrations in Bababudangiri, he asked the government to maintain a status quo like last year. “Allowing Shobha Yatra would disturb communal harmony in the area,” he said.
Like the previous year, Karnad is planning to organise a jatha to spread the message of communal harmony. However, he will kick-start the jatha from Srirangapatna, the capital of Tippu to Bababudangiri in Chikamagalur.
Critics G Ramakrishna, K Marulasiddappa, G K Govind Rao, K S Parthasarathy and former Minister B K Chandrashekar have also expressed support to the stand taken by Karnad.
Meanwhile, KCVP legislator Vatal Nagaraj has questioned the contributions of Shankaramurthy to Kannada. He condemned the Minister's comments on Tippu Sultan. “He was a great patriot and promoted Kannada,” he said and criticised the Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy for keeping quite on the issue.
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