BENGALURU, 4 AUG

Opposition Leader R Ashoka claimed the ruling Congress government was trying to rename the KRS dam as Tipu Sultan Sagar, while BJP State President BY Vijayendra accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and State Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa of "distorting history and disrespecting the legacy" of the Mysore royal family.

At an event at Srirangapatna in Mandya district on Sunday, Mahadevappa said, "Tipu Sultan was the first who laid the foundation stone (of the dam), but nobody has the courage to say this. BR Ambedkar has said that those who don't know history cannot create history." Sultan had eradicated the Devadasi system, pioneered land reforms and introduced sericulture in India for the first time, he added.

Vijayendra took to X to criticise Mahadevappa he called an "attempt to rewrite well-documented history".

“From the beginning, Siddaramaiah has shown contempt towards the royal family. Just recently, MLC Yathindra stated that his father (Siddaramaiah) was greater than Nalwadi Krishna Raja Wadiyar. Now, Mahadevappa has insulted the legacy and sacrifice behind the construction of the KRS dam,” Vijayendra wrote.

He said that the KRS dam was a vision realised through the perseverance and sacrifice of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and backed by the Mysore royal family. Vijayendra reminded Mahadevappa that Tipu died in 1799, while the dam was planned more than a century later, in 1908.

“The people of Karnataka are aware that the glorification of Tipu is a deliberate political strategy aimed at consolidating Muslim votes,” he charged.

Meanwhile, Ashoka accused Tipu Sultan of being a traitor to the land, a Persian, and a religious fanatic who killed thousands of Hindus and destroyed temples. “Imposing such a person's name on KRS reveals the Congress mindset”. 

Similarly, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, Mysuru-Kodagu MP and member of the royal family, hit back at Mahadevappa’s statement, demanding proof to back the claim.

"It has become a habit for a few politicians nowadays to grab political mileage, to secure their vote bank by issuing such statements", he said.