Bengaluru: The Bengaluru City civil court has stayed the release of a book titled ‘Siddu Nija Kanasugalu’ following a petition filed by Congress MLA Yathindra Siddaramaiah, son of Karnataka’s leader of opposition and ex-Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah.
BJP leaders CN Ashwath Narayan, Karnataka’s Higher Education minister, and MLC Chalavadi Narayanaswamy were due to have released the book, written by Rohith Chakrathirtha, at 3 pm on Monday.
Chakrathirtha was earlier head of Karnataka’s textbooks revision committee, but the state government disbanded it following protests over new textbooks, reported Hindustan Times.
Siddaramaiah has been compared with Tipu Sultan in the book, in which the BJP highlighted alleged ‘misrule’ in Karnataka under Siddaramaiah.
Karnataka Congress on Sunday lodged a police complaint demanding that cops should stop release of the book.
In the complaint, Soorya Mukundaraj, general secretary of State Congress Legal Cell, alleged that the book contains derogatory, imaginary and provocative content on Siddaramaiah.
Mukundaraj added that the book contains a distorted image of Siddaramaiah on its cover page.
Posters of the book launch event show copies of the book with a picture of Siddaramaiah wearing an attire which resembles Tipu Sultan, and holding a sword, on its cover.
The BJP was defiant, even after today’s court order staying release of the book.
“We will ensure that contents of the book reaches public so that they know the truth,” BJP spokesperson Vijay Prasad said.
