Amid the row over Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq inaugurating the Dasara celebration to be organised by the Karnataka Government, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defended the decision on Sunday, saying that only “zealots” opposed it, even as Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka threatened to launch a Chamundeshwari Chalo protest if the sanctity of the temple where the inaugural is to be held is “violated”.
Speaking to reporters at Mysuru, Siddaramaiah said that Mushtaq was chosen to inaugurate the festivities on September 22 because she had won the Booker Prize this year. “In the past too, a member of the Muslim community, poet Nisar Ahmed, had inaugurated the festival,” he added, describing the Dasara celebrations as a cultural event.
There are no conditions that mandate that the Nada Habba (state festival) be inaugurated only by members of one community, the chief minister said.
Dasara, Siddaramaiah said, is “a festival for all people of the state – Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Jains”. He noted that the festival was celebrated even during the rule of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, and under Sir Mirza Ismail, who was Diwan of the erstwhile Mysore kingdom.
“This is a festival sans religion and caste. Only zealots are making these statements,” he said, commenting on the opposition by the BJP and right-wing groups that Mushtaq should not be allowed to inaugurate Dasara festivities. “I don’t think they know history. It is good if they learn history,” he said.
Some of the critics had insisted that Mushtaq must first “declare her devotion” to the goddess Chamundeshwari.
On allegations that the author had disrespected Bhuvaneshwari—considered the goddess of Kannada—Siddaramaiah asked whether Mushtaq would have written books in the language if she did not love it. She won the Booker Prize for Heart Lamp, the English translation of a selection of her Kannada short stories.
Ashoka, who visited the Chamundeshwari temple at Mysuru on Sunday, described the move as an attempt to target Hindu centres of faith. “Such a sacred festival should not be defiled by the state government,” he said. If the sanctity of the temple is violated, the BJP will organise a Chamundeshwari Chalo campaign, he said, adding that it would be along the lines of the Dharmasthala Chalo rally organised by the party in protest against the alleged defamation of the temple town over claims of secret burials.
On Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s comments that the Chamundeshwari temple belonged to all people of the state and not just Hindus, Ashoka dared him to make similar remarks about a mosque. “After the Sabarimala temple and Tirupati, Dharmasthala and Chamundeshwari temples are being targeted,” the BJP MLA said.