BJP opposes BMC's proposal to name garden after Tipu Sultan; questions Sena's 'Hindutva'

A controversy erupted in the Shiv Sena-ruled BMC after the civic body tabled a proposal to name a revamped garden in Mumbai after Tipu Sultan. The proposal was presented during a meeting of the committee on Thursday for a two-acre garden in Govandi near the Deonar Dumping ground which the BMC is expected to remodel by December. However, the renaming of the garden courted controversy after Hindu outfits and the BJP opposed the renaming of the land to honour 'a cruel king who killed Hindus.' 

In January 2021, Samajwadi Party's Rukhsana Siddique wrote a letter to the Markets and Garden Committee to name the garden after Sultan saying that the 'Tiger of Mysore had opposed the British rule in South India.' She stated that the name was deemed fit since before its reconstruction, the garden was also encroached by anti-social elements. The suggestion by the SP leader was accepted by the BMC and was tabled for approval by the committee on Thursday. 

Hindu outfits, BJP oppose decision

Opposing the move, a delegation of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti met Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar to submit a letter saying that Sultan had 'demolished several Hindu temples and committed atrocities on women during his rule' and hence the name was not deemed appropriate.

“Tipu Sultan was a cruel king who killed Hindus. We are against naming a garden after him because he used to forcefully convert Hindus to Islam. He had demolished several Hindu temples and committed atrocities on women during his rule. The Hindu community will not tolerate this kind of a decision,” said Dr Uday Dhuri, spokesperson of the outfit, in the letter.

BJP MP Manoj Kotak also voiced out concerns over the decision saying that Shiv Sena was 'straying away from Hindutva' after forming the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state. The saffron party has demanded that the garden in turn be named after someone like Maulana Azad or Havaldar Abdul Hamid of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war.