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'I've come to speak about Uri Gowda, Nanje Gowda...': Minister Shobha Karandlaje
Amid the controversy surrounding Vokkaliga chieftans Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, who held a press conference in Bengaluru on Sunday to justify that the two killed Tipu Sultan, walked away when asked about the LPG price hike.
Amid the controversy surrounding Vokkaliga chieftans Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, who held a press conference in Bengaluru on Sunday to justify that the two killed Tipu Sultan, walked away when asked about the LPG price hike.
Karandlaje, held the press meet to prove the existence of the two characters, who the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claim to have killed Tipu Sultan. This has irked the Opposition Congers and JD(S), who termed it as 'distortion of history'.
At the press conference, when a reporter asked about the hike in LPG prices, Karandlaje walks away saying, "I've come to speak about Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda today. I'll talk about LPG price hike some other day."
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The union minister on Saturday had said that eminent Kannada writer D Javaregowda’s research book Suvarna Mandya has references to Vokkaliga chieftains, which she relied upon as evidence proving the existence of the two characters.
“The Congress and JD(S) have argued that Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda did not even exist. The book Suvarna Mandya has references to their fight against Tipu Sultan,” Karandlaje told reporters.
“In Mangaluru, Tipu killed thousands of Christians. In Kodagu, he massacred the Kodavas. Even to this day, Mandyam Iyengars in Melkote don’t celebrate Deepavali. Has anybody asked why? That’s because, on one Naraka Chaturdashi, thousands of Iyengars were killed by Tipu Sultan in Melkote,” Karandlaje said.
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While Historians have long believed that Tipu Sultan was killed by the British during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, right-wing groups and the BJP claim the Vokkaliga chieftans killed the 18th-Century Mysuru ruler.
The issue came to the fore during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Karnataka to inaugurate the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway recently, when four arches were put up on the route. One of them was named after Kempe Gowda, the second one after Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the third after Sir M Visvesvaraya, and the fourth arch had the names of Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda. However, the arch was removed after the Oppostion threatened to protest.
Meanwhile, Kannada film producer and Horticulture Minister N Murirathna, who had decided to produce a Kannada movie ‘Uri Gowda - Nanje Gowda’, withdrew his decision after meeting Adichunchanagiri Mutt seer Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji in Mandya on Monday. The Vokkaliga seer reportedly slammed the minister for deciding to make the movie on the warriors without any documents or records about their involvement in Tipu’s killing.
