Union Minister of State for Skill Development Anantkumar Hegde has written to officials in the Karnataka government asking them to leave him out of events celebrating the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan.

In a tweet, the Minister said he had conveyed to the government to not invite him to a “shameful event glorifying a person known as brutal killer”.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has criticised Hegde for refusing to attend, ANI reported. “It is being made into a political issue. There were four wars against British and Tipu fought them all,” he said.

Last year too, the Minister vehemently criticised the State government’s decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti “despite stiff opposition” from a section of people, The Hindu reported. Tipu, he had then claimed, was “against Kannada language and was anti-Hindu”.

Last March, the police in Sirsi, Uttar Kannada, registered a criminal case against Hegde for allegedly stoking communal tension.