Tipu Sultan being targeted for vote bank politics 'shameful', says descendant

A descendant of Tipu Sultan on Wednesday claimed that it is "shameful" that the former ruler is being targeted for vote bank politics.

Speaking to ANI, Md Shahid Alam said, "History can never be deleted. Tipu Sultan was a freedom fighter. I will write a letter to the Prime Minister regarding this issue what is happening and the way Tipu Sultan is being targetted is not good."

Alam is the eighth descendant of Tipu Sultan.

This comes after Madikeri MLA and BJP leader Appachu Ranjan wrote to Education Minister S Suresh Kumar, proposing to strike-off references to Tipu Sultan from history textbooks.

Responding to this, his descendant said, "Some people are playing vote bank politics just to get votes, which is quite shameful. People cannot deny that he was a freedom fighter. History is like this and will remain so in future."

He further said that he will write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard and also file a defamation case against those targetting Tipu Sultan.

In a letter to Kumar, Ranjan wrote that Tipu has been portrayed as a freedom fighter and history should not be written with false facts.

"Tipu came to Kodagu, Mangaluru and other parts of the state to expand his territory. He came here just to convert people to his religion and to boost his kingdom," he said.Ranjan further alleged that Tipu had no respect for Kannada as his administrative language was Persian."He changed names of places - Madikeri to Jafarabad and Mangaluru to Jalalabad. He looted many temples and Christian churches as well. In Kodagu, he converted 30 thousand Kodavas," Ranjan wrote.Ranjan said he will also submit the letter to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday.