Dasara is a secular festival; decision on invite to Banu Mushtaq appropriate, says CM

Making it clear that the Dasara celebration was “secular and non-religious”, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has defended his decision to invite Booker Prize winner Banu Musthaq to inaugurate this year’s festivities.

As Dasara is celebrated as “Nada Habba” by people belonging to all faiths, Mr. Siddaramaiah said here on Sunday that it was not necessary that only people of a particular religion should inaugurate the festival.

Fielding queries from reporters at the Mysuru airport, Mr. Siddaramaiah recalled that poet Nisar Ahmed, a Muslim, had inaugurated Dasara, which, he said, was celebrated by Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains and Buddhists alike.

“Even during the times when there was no rule of the Maharajas, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan celebrated Dasara. Dewan Mirza Ismail too celebrated Dasara. It is a secular and non-religious festival,” Mr. Siddaramaiah contended.

Defending his decision to invite Ms. Mushtaq after the Dasara High Power Committee authorised him as “appropriate”, Mr. Siddaramaiah said there were very few Booker Prize winning writers.

When his attention was drawn to the opposition from the BJP, Mr. Siddaramaiah said only “religious bigots” were questioning the choice of Ms. Musthaq.

“They do not know history. It would be good for them to learn history,” he remarked before pointing out that BJP leaders were making statements on the issue for the sake of “politics”.

Dismissing BJP’s charges that Ms. Mushtaq had disrespected Kannada with her alleged statements against Goddess Bhuvaneshwari, Mr. Siddaramaiah asked if she would be able to write in Kannada if she did not have respect, pride and admiration for the language. He said the BJP was only looking for excuses and was not speaking from a secular perspective.

He also dismissed Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R. Ashok’s statement the writer eat beef. “Who has seen her eating beef?” he asked before terming Mr. Ashok’s statement as “hypocritical talk” and added that there was no need to take it seriously.

To a demand on honouring Deepa Bhasthi, translator of Ms. Mushtaq’s award-winning work ‘Heart Lamp”, the Chief Minister said the State Government had already honoured both Ms. Mushtaq and Ms. Bhasthi by awarding ₹10 lakh each.

When asked if the date for Dasara airshow had been fixed, the Chief Minister said the event would be held on Vijayadashami itself.