Bengaluru, Oct 30 (IANS): The BJP government in Karnataka would remove the lesson on the 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan from school history books as he was a "tyrant" and prosecuted the Hindus, state Chief Minister B.S. Yedyiurappa said on Wednesday.

"As lessons on Tipu Sultan must not be in school text books, we will not allow them to continue," Yedyuirappa told reporters here.

Tipu (1750-1799) was the king of then Mysore state in southern India and died in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799 at Srirangapatna near Mysore after a series of victories in battles against the British rulers.

B S Yediyurappa

Mysore is about 150 km southwest of Bengaluru.

"We have already decided not to celebrate Tipu's birthday on November 10 as a state function, as he was a controversial ruler and indulged in forcible conversions, destruction of temples and harassment of the Hindus," the Chief Minister said at a meet-the-press event here.

The opposition Congress, however, opposed the move to ban Tipu's lesson in school history books and discontinuing Tipu Jayanti celebrations across the state.

"It is unfortunate that the BJP government has decided to remove the Tipu lesson and stop celebrating Tipu's birthday as part of its ideological agenda for vote bank politics though he was the first freedom fighter who fought the British to remain independent," Siddaramaiah told reports here.

State Education Minister Suresh Kumar has directed the Karnataka text book society managing director to study an appeal by BJP's Madikeri assembly segment legislator Appachu Ranjan for removing the lesson on Tipu from history books in schools.

"Tipu has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in the school text books in Kannada and English with no mention that he was a tyrant and forced Hindus to embrace Islam," Ranjan said in a letter to Kumar.