‘Finish off Siddu like Tipu’ jibe puts Ashwath in spot

NT Correspondent  

Mandya / Bengaluru: The latest war of words between Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and the BJP over State Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan calling for the former chief minister to be “finished off like Tipu Sultan.” is likely to negatively impact the saffron party in the lead up to the Assembly polls.

The minister made the statement in a party meeting at the Kambada Narasimhaswamy temple near Sathanuru village in Mandya taluk Tuesday evening. “Do you want Tipu or Savarkar? Then where should we send Tipu Sultan? What had Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda done? You just finish him (Siddaramaiah) off the same way,” Narayan said to general agreement from the crowd.

There is a claim that the two Vokkaliga chieftains killed the 18th century sultan which however remains unconfirmed. The offending video clip was shared widely within hours and by Wednesday morning Siddaramaiah, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and it’s Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala had reacted to it.

Siddaramaiah wasted no time in declaring that it was Narayan, BJP and the Sangh’s ideology to finish off people and likened it to ideas that led to Nathuram Godse’s assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Narayan on Thursday apologised to the LOP in the Assembly, but Congress didn’t seem mollified, with Siddaramaiah even calling for his sacking as minister.

“He has no business continuing as minister even for a second. I request the Governor to dismiss him from the cabinet. I even asked for him to come and kill me himself instead of instigating people,” Siddaramaiah had said.

Even the likes of BJP general secretary CT Ravi, known for making inflammatory comments, have distanced themselves from Narayan’s remarks. However, BJP Karnataka president Nalin Kumar Kateel simultaneously said “Tipu lovers should not remain here and only Ram devotees should.”

What this row has done is given Congress leaders a stick to beat the BJP with and reinvigorated the Congress cadre who have been staging protests and calling for bandhs all over the state. Old row and foes Interestingly, it was Siddaramaiah as chief minister, who had sanctioned the official celebration of Tipu Jayanti, which was phased out by the BJP when it came to power.

The intensification of the back-andforth comments between the LOP and the saffron party can be traced back to August 3 when Siddaramaiahotsava, the Congress heavyweight’s birthday bash in Davangere, took place, drawing lakhs of attendees in the process. The BJP, alarmed by an uptick in the Opposition leader’s popularity, began attacking him using every chance they got.

Siddaramaiah, on his part has given as good as he has gotten. However, he has had to walk a tightrope in attacking Hindutva while not letting Hindu identity become an electoral factor. The ruling party has also found that attacking an Opposition leader, including attempting to launch the book “Siddu Nija Kanasugalu" along the same lines as the play “Tipu Nija Kanasugalu” has limitations and can backfire.