A quarrel about Tipu Sultan has erupted ahead of BMC elections 2022

The Maha Vikas Aghadi partners and the Bharatiya Janata Party were set opposing one other on Tipu Sultan, renowned as the Tiger of Mysore and an avowed enemy of the British East India Company, ahead of the 2018 elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The inauguration of "Tipu Sultan Maidan" on Republic Day by Congress Minister Aslam Shaikh was the catalyst. The BJP and Bajrang Dal condemned the move, while the ruling MVA partners retaliated by asking the BJP whether it would ask the President of India to resign after he praised Tipu Sultan in a speech to the Karnataka assembly in 2017.

 

"The BJP believes that only they are knowledgeable about history. Everyone is preparing to write a new history, and these historians are come to change it. We already know who Tipu Sultan is, so we don't need to learn anything from the BJP "Sanjay Raut, a Shiv Sena MP, remarked He went on to say whether the BJP will push President Ramnath Kovind to resign as a result of his adulation for Tipu Sultan as a "historical warrior" and "freedom fighter."

 

If they claim it's named after Tipu and that they'll do this and that, they should go on and accomplish it; denying all of this isn't going to help them. The State Government has the authority to make decisions. Don't start a new chapter in history. You can try to change history in Delhi all you want, but you won't succeed," Raut added.

 

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has criticised the state administration, particularly the Congress. "Tipu Sultan persecuted Hindus. It is not appropriate to name a municipal garden after Tipu Sultan. Why is it that they are celebrating someone who harassed Hindus? This choice should be rescinded. This government is not in a good place "he stated.

 

NCP Minister Nawab Malik, on the other hand, claims Tipu Sultan never surrendered to the British and was martyred in the fight against the invaders. ‘’ Such warriors are opposed by the BJP. B S Yediyurappa, a BJP leader in Karnataka, used to commemorate Tipu Sultan's death anniversary, but he stopped doing so after becoming Chief Minister. "Even in Mumbai, BJP councillors had signed letters requesting that the garden be named after Tipu Sultan. It's nothing more than the BJP's strategy of diverting public attention "he stated.

 

On the other hand, state Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant believes it is the BJP's distorted tactics to use religion to depict historical personalities and spew hate and division venom. "The BJP's political style of portraying everything in black and white is distorted, and such an approach should be utterly repudiated." Every day at 7.30 p.m., the Sri Mookambika temple in Kollur performs a special 'aarti' in Tipu Sultan's honour. Tipu was designated a martyr by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whose hologram was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his Mysore tiger was made a component of his Azad Hind Sena's banner as well as figured on its uniform," Sawant said.

 

 

Neither the BMC nor the state government, according to Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pedenkar, have preserved the ground name over ruler Tipu Sultan. "How did their corporators in the past support the requests to maintain the names of two Mumbai roads over the King Tipu Sultan if the BJP does not agree with the name Tipu Sultan?" she said. In a written response to a question posed by MLA Aslam Shaikh in 2015, then-minority Minister Eknath Khadse referred to the ground as Tipu Sultan ground. So why hasn't anyone objected against the name? Pedeneker is said to be involved.

 

MLA from Mumbai for the BJP Amit Satam has confirmed that as chairman of the BMC's "Works Committee," he never proposed naming any Mumbai city road after Tipu Sultan. Satam urged Mumbai Mayor and Mumbai Guardian Minister Aslam Shaikh, to produce evidence to back up their charges against him.

 

 

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