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Karnataka: Author of controversial book on Tipu quits Rangayana after BJP’s defeat
Addanda C Cariappa said he was taking moral responsibility as the government which had appointed his as the director or Rangayana had lost the election
Director of Rangayana, a theatre institute in Karnataka’s Mysuru, Addanda C Cariappa, resigned from his post on Sunday, citing moral responsibility after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s defeat in the just-concluded Assembly elections.
“The government which had appointed me as the director of Rangayana has lost the election. I respect people’s mandate and by taking moral responsibility, I’m resigning from the director’s post,” Cariappa said in his letter addressed to the secretary of the Kannada and Culture Department, dated May 14.
During his stint as the director of the repertory, Cariappa was in the thick of several controversies including staging of the play written and directed by him - ‘Tippu Nija Kanasugalu’ (Real Dreams of Tipu).
In November 2022, the play was staged at Bhoomigeeta in Mysuru and a book was also published with the same story. It said the 18th century Mysuru ruler was not killed by the British, but by Vokkaliga chieftains Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, and showed the Muslim leader in bad light. Cariyappa also maintained that 80,000 Kodavas (native warrior clan from Kodagu district of Karnataka) were massacred by Tipu.
This was questioned by historians and experts who dubbed it “fiction” and an attempt to polarise communities for political gains. BS Rafiulla, the former chairman of the District Wakf Board Committee (DWBC), filed a writ petition seeking a stay on the play and the book.
Rafiulla alleged that it “contains wrong information without any support or justification from history”, and that it hurt the feelings of the Muslim community. Later, the additional city civil and sessions court in Bengaluru stayed the distribution and sale of the book in response to the petition.
In the run up to the Assembly elections, BJP leaders had raked up the issue in an attempt to gain foothold in the Vokkaliga dominated region of the state. Old Mysuru region, which has the largest concentration of Vokkaliga voters, has 61 seats in the state Assembly. While it had been the traditional stronghold of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), the BJP and the Congress tried to make inroads. The Congress bagged a big chunk of 41 seats, up from 20 in 2018, while the BJP also improved its tally to 15 from 5 seats in 2018. Meanwhile, the JD(S) was reduced to 14, from 30 seats in the 2018 elections.
Cariappa had taken charge on December 31, 2019 and was in office for three years and four months.
“When I took charge, Rangayana was not economically stable. Now it has a fixed deposit of ₹2.09 crore and ₹1.57 crore in the bank account. The corpus of ₹4 crore given by the government to pay for the retirement benefits of 16 artistes and staff of Rangayana after retirement will earn the interest of ₹50 lakh,” Cariappa said in his letter.
