As he remained in the eye of a storm, the noted playwright and actor sought to end the controversy, saying, "If anybody has been hurt by my remarks, I apologise...What will I gain by doing it (by giving such comments)."
He said he had only expressed his view and there was no ulterior motive, as his remarks drew strong criticism and protests from different quarters.
"It is his personal remarks. The government does not have any connection to the remarks made by Karnad," Siddaramaiah said, as he also came under criticism for not rebutting the Jnanpith awardee immediately at the function itself.
Siddaramaiah also said it was a mistake on the part of the Jnanapith award winner to have made such remarks. "It is a mistake. I have told you," he said.
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"I do not know why Girish Karnad made such a remark. I was also there (when he made the remark), I wanted to counter but I did not do," he said.
In a controversial remark, Karnad had said that it would have been "apt" had the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli near here been named after Tipu Sultan rather than Kempegowda, a feudatory ruler under the erstwhile Vijayanagara Empire who founded Bengaluru in 1537.
"It is true that Kempegowda was great, he founded Bengaluru. But he was not a freedom fighter, so naming Bengaluru airport after Tipu Sultan would have been apt," Karnad had said.