The News Minute Photo. (Representaional)
Bengaluru: The Indian Railway renamed the Mysuru-Bengaluru Tipu Express to Wodeyar Express, a change that is expected to incite controversy. The change was effective from Friday after Mysuru MP Pratap Simha submitted a representation to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in July this year, New 18 reported.
MP Simha also proposed the renaming of the express train connecting Mysuru and Talaguppe, honouring a Kannada poet Kuvempu. The railway has accepted that suggestion, too, and orders have been issued to make the amendment too, and the same will be effective from Saturday.
Tipu Express, the superfast train connecting Mysuru and Bengaluru, was commissioned in 1980. It covers a distance of 139 km in just more than three hours in a sing-line metre gauge track. Renaming of the train, which was named after a Muslim king, is seen by many factions as the saffronisation agenda of the BJP. It has gathered criticism too.
But, Simha had reasoned his requests saying that the Wodeyar dynasty had made huge contributions to the railway infrastructure during their reign.
Wodeyars were Hindu rulers of the Mysore kingdom. Tipu Sultan was a Muslim ruler in Srirangapattanam and had died fighting the colonial British.