'Steer clear of birth fetes of controversial figures'

Pejawar Mutt seer Vishveshateertha said on Wednesday that governments should steer clear of celebrating the birth anniversaries of controversial personalities like Tipu Sultan.

He told reporters here that there were great personalities like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Mirza Ismail among Muslims and nobody would object to celebrating their birth anniversaries.

The pontiff said that he was not in favour of any one party or caste. In the past, he had lauded many good works of the Siddaramaiah government, Vishveshateertha said.

He refused to comment on the Madikeri incident, saying he did not have much information on it. It was wrong on the part of playwright Girish Karnad to have said that it would have been apt to name the Bengaluru international airport after Tipu Sultan, instead of city founder Kempegowda, the pontiff added.