Basavraj Bommai justifies govt's move to remove lessons on Tipu Sultan

Bengaluru: Home Minister Basavraj Bommai on Thursday justified government’s move to remove lessons on TipuSultan from textbooks.

Addressing presspersons after flagging off ‘Run for Unity’ at Vidhana Soudha, Bommai said, “Tipu was a controversial figure and children shouldn’t read about such personalities.”

He further added, “Previous government had also not celebrated Tipu Jayathi, we are just carrying forward what they started. If anyone wishes to celebrate Tipu Jayanthi the are free to do so. But our government will not spend a penny to celebrate it.”

Meanwhile, Congress High Command has reportedly directed KPCC not to harp on Tipu Sultan issue as the reference to Tipu backfired for the party in Lok Sabha elections.

BS Yediyurappa on October 30 indicated that his government’s plans to remove the lesson on Tipu Sultan from middle school history textbooks and said he does not believe the controversial 18th-century ruler of erstwhile Mysore kingdom was a freedom fighter.

“Tipu – we are going to drop everything and even in the textbook also (lesson regarding him) appeared that also we are thinking to cancel,” he told reporters here in response to a question, days after BJP MLA Appachu Rajan demanded the removal of the lesson saying it carried “wrong information”.

Yediyurappa said he does not believe Tipu Sultan was a freedom fighter. “….we will look into it, we will examine it (demand for removing the lesson from the textbook),” he added.

The move was slammed by opposition Congress which said removing the lesson was like “distorting history”.

State Primary and Secondary Education MinisterSuresh Kumar had on Monday asked officials to look into the demand by Ranjan and sought a report in three days.

The Minister in a note has asked the Managing Director of Karnataka Textbook Society to call a meeting of history textbook drafting committee and to invite the MLA to discuss the need for the lesson.