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Under attack for remarks that the Bengaluru international airport should have been named after 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and not the city’s founder Kempegowda, Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad on Wednesday offered his apology. The noted playwright and actor sought to end the controversy, saying, “If anybody has been hurt by my remarks, I apologise...what will I gain by doing it (by giving such comments).”
He said he had only expressed his view and there was no ulterior motive, as his remarks drew strong criticism and protests.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the government had nothing to do with Karnad’s remarks, which were made at a State government function to mark the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan here on Tuesday.
“They are his personal remarks. The government does not have any connection to them,” Siddaramaiah said, as he too came under criticism for not rebutting the Jnanpith awardee at the function itself. “It is a mistake,” he said, “I do not know why Girish Karnad made such a remark. I was also there (when he made the remark), I wanted to counter but I did not do,” he said.
In a controversial remark, Karnad had said that it would have been “apt” had the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli near here been named after Tipu Sultan rather than Kempegowda, who founded Bengaluru in 1537.
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