CM's absence from Tipu Jayanti celebrations is an insult to Muslim community: Congress MLA
Bengaluru, Nov 10: With the Karnataka chief minister and his deputy skipping the Tipu Jayanthi celebrations, a Congress legislator Saturday termed it as an insult to the Muslim community.
"This was the first Tipu Jayanthi of the new government. The information is that following doctor's advice chief minister H D Kumaraswamy is not taking part (in the programmes). Deputy chief minister G Parameshwara is on a foreign tour. This development has somewhere come across as though the community has been insulted. There is no doubt about it," MLA and former minister Tanveer Sait said.
According to party sources, several Congress leaders, especially those from the Muslim community, are miffed with the chief minister and deputy chief minister for giving the event a miss.
Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, Sait said politics and party notwithstanding it was his duty to express the sentiments of his community.
He requested the chief minister to at least attend a Tipu Jayanthi event at a place near to where he was taking rest.
"I request the chief minister to try and attend the programme at H D Kote that is near to the place where he is taking his break," he added.
Protests by BJP and right wing outfits and the absence of Kumaraswamy and Parameshwara marked Tipu Jayanthi celebrations in Karnataka, which marks the birth anniversary of 18th-century ruler Tipu Sultan.
The previous Congress government, led by Siddaramaiah, began celebrating Tipu Jayanthi on November 10 every year since 2015, amid stiff opposition from the BJP, several Hindu organisations, and some individuals.
Sait said the government should show the same enthusiasm when celebrating Tipu Jayanthi as is done during the jayanthis of stalwarts from other communities.
"Cancelling celebrations or processions and banning all programmes other than scheduled government events just because someone will cause hurdle somewhere, causes insult to the community," he added.
Kumaraswamy did not attend the event citing doctor's advice to take rest for three days till November 11.
The chief minister's office had made prior announcement about Kumaraswamy's inability to attend the function and his name was also not printed in the invitations.
Following the chief minister's decision to skip the event, reports had emerged about differences in opinion between the ruling coalition partners about Tipu Jayanthi celebrations.
While in the opposition, Kumaraswamy had questioned the need for such celebrations.
Kumaraswamy reportedly chose to skip the event, not wishing to antagonise voters in his party's bastion of old Mysuru region, as Tipu Sultan along with his father Hyder Ali had seized power from Maharajas of Mysuru, who are virtually revered there.
Parameshwara, who was to inaugurate the main Tipu Jayanthi celebration event at Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state legislature here, in the absence of Kumaraswamy, also skipped the function Saturday.
Parameshwara was reportedly in Singapore to visit a senior politician from Karnataka, who is ailing.
His office maintained that the deputy chief minister was out of town.
Later in a statement, Parameshwara, while hailing Tipu and his contributions to the state, maintained that due to unavoidable reasons he was unable to attend Tipu Jayanthi celebrations Saturday and wished success for the event.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
