Death threats against Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad over his remarks about naming Bengaluru international airport after Tipu Sultan amounts to “terror”, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said today. “Now, death threats to Girish Karnad? No longer about ‘tolerance’ anymore – wrong word. This is terror (sic),” Yechury said on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Karnad has allegedly received death threats on social media as the controversy rages in Karnataka over the birth anniversary celebrations of 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan. Karnad, who came under severe attack for his remarks that Bengaluru international airport should have been named after Tipu Sultan rather than the city’s founder, Kempe Gowda, received a threat on Twitter that he would meet with the same fate as rationalist MM Kalburgi, who was gunned down recently by two men at his residence in Dharwad in north Karnataka.
Security has been posted at the residence of Karnad, a noted Kannada playwright and actor, in the wake of the controversy over his remarks with several organisations, particularly those connected with the dominant Vokkaliga community to which Kempe Gowda belonged, Kannada bodies, right-wing outfits and BJP, targeting him.