No crisis in Karnataka state: Rajnath Singh

New Delhi, Sept 25: BJP president Rajnath Singh today asserted there was no ''crisis'' in Karnataka but stopped short of contradicting former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda on the issue.

Speaking to newspersons, Mr Singh said, ''There is no crisis in Karnataka at all'' and under-played the threats issued to the BJP by Mr Gowda that the government would be in jeopardy if they failed to take measures in reining in the party activists from going ahead with the week-long 'Shobha Yatra' in Datta Peetha shrine controlled by Sufi followers in Bababudan Giri on the western ghats.

The party is also peeved by Karnataka Education Minister D H Shankaramurthy's statements indicating that he would drop references of Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Srirangapatna hailed by the localites as 'Tiger of Mysore', in school text books.

Mr Singh said the party would be issuing reactions through its Spokesmen Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar concerning the state and would not say anything about Mr Gowda.

The party has been maintaining that its understanding was with Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and not his father, who was opposed to the coalition right from day one. The leadership is inclined to advise the Education Minister to give up his adamant stance on Tipu, who was a rank nationalist putting up a stiff resistance against the British rule.

UNI

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