Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Dec 23: Karnataka chief minister(CM), Siddaramaiah, in an angry retort to the accusations hurled against him by the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) that his government has been selective in celebrating Tipu Jayanti over others, pointed out that his government had renamed the Women's University at Vijapura after Akka Mahadevi.

He was reacting to Yogi Adityanath's statement while addressing the BJP's 'Parivartana Yatra' at Hubballi on December 21, "It's unfortunate that the Congress worships a despotic Muslim ruler like Tipu Sultan than Hindu deity Hanuman, who hailed from Karnataka and served Lord Ram." 

"We are the ones who ordered that pictures of Basavanna should be hung in all government offices. If anyone resorts to religious fundamentalism by closing their eyes to the truth and term Tipu Sultan to be a religious bigot, it would be an insult to the history of the land," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

"No one has exclusive right over Hindutva. Chief minister of Uttara Pradesh came here and criticized me for celebrating Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary. I wish to remind him that we are not celebrating only the jayanti (birth anniversary) of Tipu, but also of various other personalities like Devara Dasimaya, Ambigara Choudayya, Ambedkar, Kanakadasa, Valmiki, Kittur queen Chennamma, Kempe Gowda, Sri Krishna Jayanti and many more," he said. He further tweeted that Karnataka celebrates even Sewalal Jayanti and that the state government is not being partisan towards someone by celebrating some leader's birth anniversary and meting out step-motherly treatment to others.

He called upon the CM of UP to gather full and proper information of things like these before making wild allegations. He said that his government has been celebrating birth anniversaries of all great historic personalities, eminent people, saints and reverred personalities. He sought to know from Adityanath as to why BJP did not celebrate birth anniversaries of these people when in power.