BBMP revokes decision to name circle after Tipu

A fresh controversy has surfaced over Tipu Sultan, days after the state government announced it was retaining textbook chapters on the 18th-century ruler of Mysuru.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Tuesday revoked its earlier decision to name a traffic intersection in northern Bengaluru after Tipu Sultan. The civic body’s council has decided to name Bellahalli Circle in the Jakkur ward after the chairman of the Constitution’s drafting committee, Dr B R Ambedkar, or former minister B Basavalingappa, who championed the Dalit cause in the 1970s.

On January 29, 2019, the BBMP council, then ruled by the Congress-JDS coalition, had approved a proposal to name Bellahalli Circle after Tipu Sultan.

Mayor M Goutham Kumar moved the proposal to revoke the decision and submit a fresh proposal before the council for discussion.

Abdul Wajid, the opposition leader in the council, slammed the move, although some of his party colleagues, such as former mayor G Padmavathi, supported it.

Wajid said: “The BBMP must not set a bad precedent by withdrawing what had been decided earlier by its own council. This would lead to the politics of hate and reflect poorly on decisions taken by previous mayors.”

K A Muneendra Kumar, the leader of the ruling party, called for naming the traffic circle after a Dalit personality, saying the area has a large population of the community. He noted that Basavalingappa was instrumental in allotting sites and houses in the area to members of the Dalit community when he was a minister. “We want to name it after Ambedkar or Basavalingappa. We’ll get it done in the coming days,” he added.

Road be named after M Chidananda Murthy

Several corporators demanded that a park or major road be named after Kannada writer M Chidananda Murthy, who passed away earlier this month.

Taking part in obituary references to Prof Murthy and former Karnataka Governor T N Chaturvedi, Umesh Shetty, the corporator from Govindarajanagar, said: “The BBMP must name a park or major road in Vijayanagar or Hampinagar after Prof Murthy as he lived there. That would be an appropriate honour for a towering personality.”

Other corporators from the BJP and other parties appealed to the mayor to consider the proposal.