Tipu Sultan was trending on Twitter as an unseemly war of words broke out on the micro-blogging site on Sunday after the Karnataka tableau depicted the ruler of the erstwhile kingdom of Mysore at the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi. By evening, the no-holds barred Twitter war degenerated into intemperate expressions about the legacy of Tipu Sultan and attained a political hue with twitteratti sparring over whether the Congress government in the State used the tableau deliberately to get more votes in the Lok Sabha elections.
If some of the tweets were outright objectionable, many of them reminded others that it was Tipu Sultan who fought the British. Some argued that most of the tweets were borne out of “misinformation” which hurt sentiments. “At least on the Republic Day stop this…,” read another. For some, it was an opportunity to learn more about history, as they began posting Wikipedia links on the ruler.
The Congress government zeroed in on the tableau with a figurine of Tipu, behind which was a model of a tiger killing a Briton. State authorities considered four themes before selecting Tipu. The others were: “Kodagu: the land of warriors”, “The splendour of Mysore Dasara in the 18th century” and “Saavira Kambada Basadi” (thousand-pillared temple).
