Tipu row: Former minister advises BJP to not rewrite history

Team Udayavani, Oct 31, 2019, 9:45 AM IST

Bengaluru: After Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday indicated his government’s plans to remove the lesson on Tipu Sultan from middle school history textbooks, former minister and Congress leader TB Jayachandra said that the BJP leaders should not speak about rewriting history as it may damage peace in the society.

Addressing presspersons on the issue Jayachandra said, “Any BJP leader who comes from the Kodagu region will demand to remove Tipu Sultan’s name from history. But just to satisfy them, a senior leader like Yediyurappa should not take such a decision to remove Tipu Sultan’s name.”

He further added, “The BJP leaders, again and again, speak on such issues to rewrite the history which may cause damage to the peace in the society. That’s why they should not speak about rewriting history.”

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.