Karnataka: 'Is Tipu Sultan not a freedom fighter?' State Congress president DK Shivakumar amid poster row

Ahead of 75th Independence Day celebrations in Bengaluru, a controversy linked to Tipu Sultan has once again emerged in Karnataka. The state unit of Congress had put up pictures of different freedom fighters, which included Tipu Sultan, but the a poster was vandalised on Saturday night, reported news agency ANI.

The state unit of the Congress placed posters with Tipu Sultan's image in the Hudson Circle area of Bengaluru and they were destroyed by unknown people.

Later, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar visited the place, and demanded that the government should nab the miscreants.

Speaking to the media, Shivakumar said, “Few miscreants are trying to disturb the peace in this city. Many posters at KR circle and Hudson circle have been damaged and this is an insult to the great freedom fighter."

He further said, "The Archeological Survey of India has even decorated the Tipu Palace in Chamarajpet of Bengaluru for Independence Day and the BJP government still has a problem with Tipu Sultan. All these silly attempts are because they are not able to digest the Freedom March planned by the Congress in the city.”

He also took to social media and condemned the incident.

“If Savarkar, who came out of jail and wrote an apology letter to the British, became a freedom fighter, Tipu Sultan, who fought the four Anglo-Mysore wars and died in the war as a hostage to the British, is not a freedom fighter?” the Congress leader asked.

The Karnataka Congress is organizing a freedom march on August 15 in Bengaluru in a bid to mark the sacrifices of all the freedom fighters.