delhi

Updated: Jan 28, 2018 22:15 IST

A portrait of Tipu Sultan installed in the Delhi assembly has sparked a controversy with the BJP calling the 18th century ruler of Mysore a “tyrant who forcefully converted four lakh people to Islam.” The BJP has recommended that a portrait of Sikh leader Jassa Singh Ahluwalia’s should be put up in the House instead.

BJP-SAD MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa during a presser on Sunday said, “Tipu Sultan’s father Hyder Ali was the commander of the Hindu raja of Mysore.

After the death of the Mysore ruler, Hyder Ali declared himself king of the state. Later, his son, Tipu Sultan declared his kingdom an Islamic state and implemented Shariah (Islamic laws).”

“Tipu Sultan had himself admitted that he got four lakh Hindus and Christians converted to Islam. He also replaced the names of historical cities and villages with the Muslim ones. Mangalore was changed to Jalalabad, Mysore to Nazarabad, Bepur to Sultanpatanam, Cannanore to Kusanabad, to name a few,” Sirsa said.

The controversy over Tipu Sultan first began in 2015 when the Congress government in Karnataka decided to celebrate November 10 as Tipu Jayanti. The protests turned violent, killing two people.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had unveiled portraits of 70 individuals from the country’s past, including that of Tipu Sultan, in Delhi assembly on this Republic Day.

During the Republic Day function, speaker Ram Niwas Goel had said, “Constitution also carries a picture of Tipu Sultan on page 144… They should leave this cheap politics and do politics of development.”

AAP, however, said that the BJP had not suggested any names for the portraits.

“RSS was formed in 1925. I could not find any leader of RSS, who was a renowned freedom fighter and fought against the British. If there is one, let’s place that portrait in Delhi assembly too,” said AAP spokesperson, Saurabh Bharadwaj.