Vishwanath seeks ouster of Rangayana Director, calls for ban on controversial play on Tipu Sultan

: Former Minister and BJP MLC A.H. Vishwanath on Saturday urged the government to sack Addanda Cariappa from the post of Rangayana Director and ban the controversial play on Tipu Sultan.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Vishwanath said that Rangayana, which started its operations in the early nineties when he was the Minister for Kannada and Culture, was being ‘misused’ by Mr. Cariappa.

He alleged that the Rangayana Director was eyeing a seat in the Legislative Council for which he was “trying to push the agenda of RSS” through Rangayana.

A cultural centre like Rangayana cannot be allowed to be misused to spread “distortion” of Tipu Sultan’s history, he said.

Mr. Vishwanath also expressed surprise over a literary personality like S L Bhyrappa associating himself with Mr. Cariappa.

Mr Vishwanath urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to ban the controversial play on Tipu Sultan as allowing such an activity by Rangayana will also have an impact on the government’s image.

The BJP MLC also urged Mr. Bommai to divest himself from the responsibilities of Finance Ministry and appoint an exclusive Finance Minister during the upcoming Cabinet expansion.

He contended that the Chief Minister, with his multiple responsibilities, will not be able to do justice to the crucial Ministry.

He also came down heavily on the functioning of the primary and higher education sectors in the State. Instead of focussing on providing education, mid-day meals, toilets and compounds to schools across the State, the government was planning to paint the institutions in saffron, he said..

Mr. Vishwanath also took exception to the State government’s plan to create eight more new universities in Karnataka.

He said he had already asked the government to remove recruitment and construction from the ambit of a Vice-Chancellor’s powers.