Munirathna to make movie on Vokkaliga chieftains

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru / Mandya / Mysuru: The controversy surrounding Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda took a new turn on Friday as State Horticulture Minister Munirathna is said to have registered a movie title with the Karnataka Film Chamber bearing the name of the Vokkaliga chieftains, who historians say are fictional characters.

JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy reacted strongly to the news, warning that such a venture would “destroy” the BJP. Historians said that a movie on the characters wouldn’t necessarily be questionable but portraying the chieftains as killers of 18th century sultan Tipu Sultan was condemnable since it had propagandist overtones.

The earliest historical records of the incident state that British soldiers injured and killed Tipu on May 4, 1799 during the siege of Srirangapatna, the kingdom’s capital. BJP and the Sangh, however, claim without proof that Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda killed Tipu. The story seeks to give Vokkaligas pride of place in Hindutva narratives, trying to woo the populous agriculturalist caste, which is concentrated in the Old Mysuru region.

Kumaraswamy slams BJP

Kumaraswamy, who heads a party which depends heavily on its traditional Vokkaliga support base, is wary of these developments. The former chief minister even asked Munirathna if BJP general secretary CT Ravi and State Higher Education Ashwath Narayan would be writers for the movie.

“BJP makes villains out of people and even creates characters of their own. It is their nature to divide society. They’ll fabricate people who didn’t even exist and then make heroes out of villains,” he told mediapersons during his Pancharatna Rath Yatre campaign in Hassan district on Friday.

He added that in trying to make heroes out of Vokkaligas heroes the BJP had turned them into villains instead by portraying them as killers of Tipu, implying that the killing had been an ignominious act.

They’re fictional characters: Historian

Historian Nanjaraj Urs maintained that Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda had been fictional characters. “My point of view is that they are not historical characters. They are most definitely 200 percent imaginary,” he said. Moreover, he reasoned would not write a story portraying the Vokkaliga chieftains as killers of Tipu since it was unethical. “If he (Munirathna) is to survive in the BJP, he needs to be a hero. He doesn’t have character or sincerity. What character would a defector have? ” Urs added.