The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka chief Nalin Kumar Kateel on Wednesday urged people to chase away supporters of 18th-century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan “to the forest”, The Indian Express reported.
The BJP claims that Tipu Sultan was a tyrant who destroyed many temples and villages and converted thousands of people to Islam. In Karnataka, the BJP government had disbanded the celebrations of Tipu Jayanti in 2019 and even called for removal of his references from school textbooks.
However, many historians have written about his resistance to the British when they had colonised India. He, along with his father Hyder Ali, are also credited for attempting to modernise the economy of Mysuru, where they ruled.
At a rally in the town of Yelburga in Karnataka’s Koppal district on Wednesday, Kateel remarked that those who love Tipu Sultan “should not remain in this land and only those who perform bhajans of Ram should”.
The Lok Sabha MP said: “We are devotees of Ram. We are devotees of Anjaneya [Hindu deity Hanuman]…We are not the offspring of Tipu. Therefore, I ask the people of Yelburga whether you pray for Anjaneya or chant Tipu’s name.”
When members of the audience responded with the name of Anjaneya, Kateel asked: “In that case, won’t you chase away those performing bhajans of Tipu to the forest?”
This was the second time in a week that the BJP leader referred to the Mysuru ruler at a political rally. At a rally in Shivamogga on February 8, he had remarked that the upcoming Assembly elections in the southern state will not be a battle between the BJP and Congress, but between the ideologies of Tipu Sultan and Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar.
“They [Congress] allowed celebrating Tipu Jayanti which is not required, and spoke disgracefully about Savarkar,” he had said. “I challenge [former Karnataka Chief Minister] Siddaramaiah to discuss if our country needs a patriotic like Savarkar or Tipu.”
Last month, Kateel had urged BJP workers to focus on “love jihad” instead of “small issues” such as sewage and road infrastructure.
“Love jihad” is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men romantically lure Hindu women in order to convert them to Islam.
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