Bengaluru , DHNS: Defending the government’s decision to organise Tipu Jayanti for the second year, leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that the issue should not be politicised or given a communal touch.

Addressing a gathering during a programme organised to pay tribute to former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee in Bengaluru on Monday, Kharge said the government was not indulging in vote-bank politics by observing the Jayanti.

“Tipu Jayanti is being celebrated because Tipu Sultan had fought against the British -- not because he was a Muslim,” he said, adding that the BJP was unnecessarily creating a controversy. The government will celebrate Tipu Jayanti on November 10.

Kharge said the home department would ensure that there is no law and order problem like last year.

Recalling the “hardships” that Indira Gandhi had endured to build the Congress party in the state, Kharge said that it was unfortunate that party leaders had failed to take into account the sacrifices made by her. Despite the Congress high command’s directions to the state units to organise Indira Gandhi’s anniversary in a big way, prominent leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC president G Parameshwara and KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao, had absented themselves.