Tipu row: Bajrang Dal, VHP workers burn Siddaramaiah’s effigy

At a function in the city to commemorate Tipu’s birth anniversary, Karnad said the airport should have been named after the Mysuru ruler who was born in 1750 at Devanahalli where it (airport) is located instead of Kempe Gowda who was not a freedom fighter.

A state wide shutdown was observed in Karnataka on Friday.

Earlier, playwright Girish Karnad acquired a dying menace for his marketing campaign to rename Bengaluru’s Kempegowda global Airport after 18th century Mysore king Tipu Sultan.

But political pundits say that the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has in fact capitalised on the controversy as he is now seen as a Muslim sympathiser and it will stand him in good stead when the state elections are held.

Karnad, who participated within the Congress-led Karnataka Government’s “Tipu Jayanti” celebrations, was threatened that he would ‘meet the identical finish as murdered author M M Kalburgi.

However, no arrests have been made, they said.

Biharsharif: Islamic scholars, educationists and social activists in Nalanda have criticised Congress government in Karnataka for “creating a rift in the society” by deciding to celebrate the birth anniversary of 16th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar pinned the blame for the clashes and the subsequent deaths entirely on the State government and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. They have selected Dipawali specially to hurt the Hindus. It also questioned the delay in arresting the killers of rationalist writer MM Kalburgi.

Unfazed by the threats, Karnad said, “Tweets don’t worry me”. He, however, apologised on Wednesday for his remarks on both.

He said Siddaramaiah should have stopped Karnad from making controversial remarks.

Maintaining that Tipu is deprived of such a status owing to his religious persuasion, he said, “Because what has happened is today our scholars and politicians look at one’s religion and caste first….” Now taking up the same issue again and suggesting different names does not have any meaning.

About the complaint against Karnad, police said MT Girish Gowda, state president of Human Rights and Non- Corruption Committee, an NGO, has demanded the immediate arrest of the litterateur.