'Tipu Sultan not a freedom fighter?' Congress's DK Shivakumar amid poster row

A controversy linked to Tipu Sultan has once again emerged in Karnataka. Ahead of 75th Independence Day celebrations in Bengaluru, the Karnataka Congress had put up pictures of different freedom fighters, which included Tipu Sultan, but the a poster was vandalised on Saturday night, reported news agency ANI.

The state unit of the Congress, according to the report, placed posters with Tipu Sultan's image in the Hudson Circle area of Bengaluru and they were destroyed by unknown people.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar later visited the place, and demanded that the government should nab the miscreants.

Talking to reporters, DK Shivakumar said, “Few miscreants are trying to disturb the peace in this city. Many posters at KR circle and Hudson circle have been damaged and this is an insult to the great freedom fighter."

He further added saying, "The Archeological Survey of India has even decorated the Tipu Palace in Chamarajpet of Bengaluru for Independence Day and the BJP government still has a problem with Tipu Sultan. All these silly attempts are because they are not able to digest the Freedom March planned by the Congress in the city.”

DK Shivakumar also took to social media and condemned the incident. “If Savarkar, who came out of jail and wrote an apology letter to the British, became a freedom fighter, Tipu Sultan, who fought the four Anglo-Mysore wars and died in the war as a hostage to the British, is not a freedom fighter?” the Congress leader asked.

The Karnataka Congress is organizing a freedom march on August 15 in Bengaluru in a bid to mark the sacrifices of all the freedom fighters.

The state government, meanwhile, said probe has been launched into the incident. "We don't have information about who tore the posters, police are investigating it," Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra said.

(With inputs from ANI)