Karnataka   

`Drop Minister from Karnataka Cabinet'

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Prominent intellectuals of the State, who have come under the banner of "Sauharda Karnataka," have demanded that Higher Education Minister H.D. Shankaramurthy be dropped from the Cabinet for his remarks against Tipu Sultan.

Speaking to presspersons here on Thursday, playwright Girish Karnad, the former Minister B.K. Chandrashekar, academic K.M. Marulasiddappa, G.N. Nagaraj, State unit secretary of the CPI (M), and others of the forum said Mr. Shankaramurthy's remarks on Tipu Sultan being "anti-Kannada" were "irresponsible" and "against the spirit of the Constitution" and were made "with a desire to generate a communal flare-up."

Drawing from his extensive research on Tipu while writing the play "The Dreams of Tipu Sultan," Mr. Karnad pointed out that the king who fought three major wars against the British had been celebrated not only by literary and political scholars, but also by folk artists in grassroots forms such as ballads.

Mr. Marulasiddappa said the Minister's statements had not only hurt the sentiments of the minority community, but also all Kannadigas. Calling the statements part of a larger effort to draw Kannada activists into the party's communal programme, he said the Chief Minister who belonged to a party that called itself "secular" should take responsibility for it and drop Mr. Shankaramurthy from the Cabinet immediately.

Reacting to Mr. Shankaramurthy's statements that they were his "personal opinion" on Tipu, advocate and former chairman of the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission Ravi Varma Kumar said a Minister under Constitutional oath could not justify his remarks on that ground.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

`Drop Minister from Karnataka Cabinet'
Large parts of Karnataka facing drought
Paying tribute
Briefly

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu