Tipu controversy: Karnad, BJP MP receive death threats

Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad and BJP MP Prathap Simha have allegedly received death threats on social media as the controversy raged in Karnataka over the birth anniversary celebrations of 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan. Online posts on social media directed at the duo appeared even as the toll in the violence at Madikeri over the row climbed to two after a youth succumbed to bullet wounds.

Karnad, a noted Kannada playwright and actor, came under severe attack for his remarks that Bengaluru international airport should have been named after Tipu Sultan rather than the city’s founder, Kempe Gowda, received a threat on Twitter that he would meet with the same fate as rationalist MM Kalburgi, who was gunned down recently.

Karnad said on Thursday that he was saddened, but not bothered, by the death threat. “It is not really about Tipu Sultan, it is an example of the state of political discourse in the country. The ‘gundaism’ (hooliganism) is not led by people on the street but by political leaders, people who we thought had more sense,” he said.

Security has been posted at the residence of Karnad, who has been targeted by several organisations, particularly those connected with the dominant Vokkaliga community to which Kempe Gowda belonged, Kannada bodies, right-wing outfits and BJP. Mysuru-Kodagu BJP MP Prathap Simha, who received a threat to his life in a Facebook post, has approached Mysuru police.

In a controversial remark at state government-organised Tipu Jayanti event here on Tuesday, Karnad had said that it would have been “apt” had the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli  been named after Tipu Sultan rather than Kempe Gowda, a feudatory ruler under the erstwhile Vijayanagara Empire who founded Bengaluru in 1537. Karnad had on Wednesday said he apologised if “anybody has been hurt” by his views.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who was also present at the function where Karnad made the remarks, had on Wednesday clarified that the government had nothing to do with the writer’s views and the question simply did not arise of renaming Bengaluru international airport.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday condemned the death threats against Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad over his remarks about naming Bengaluru international airport after Tipu Sultan and said it  amounts to “terror”.

“Now, death threats to Girish Karnad? No longer about ‘tolerance’ anymore - wrong word. This is terror (sic),” Yechury said on Twitter.