The principal Opposition in the State has kept the pace of protest against the Congress government’s decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti with its units staging demonstrations and shouting slogans against the latter.
Party MLA from Bailhongal and Belagavi (Rural) district unit president Vishwanath Patil and the former MLA Abhay Patil, who led a protest by over 100 workers, were taken into preventive custody by the Market Police when they were marching from the Kannada Sahitya Bhavan premises at Rani Channamma Circle to the Deputy Commissioner’s Office here on Tuesday. After a while, the police also took into custody party workers who had already marched ahead and staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office. Dr. Patil, who addressed the workers before being taken into custody, said that Tipu Sultan was not a freedom fighter as being projected by a section of society and the Congress government. He said that Tipu Sultan had fought only against a few officials of East India Company to protect his territorial interests and throne and not against the British empire in 1799 as the British empire as such had not come into existence then. Tipu Sultan was not only anti-Hindu but also anti-Kannada. There was widespread protest against government’s decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti this year, he said. .
