Decks now clear for Banu to open Dasara festivities

Decks are finally clear for International Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq to inaugurate the Dasara festival in Mysuru in the capacity of chief guest. The Supreme Court dismissed the plea objecting to the invitation extended to the celebrated author to inaugurate the official festivities on the eve of the 10-day festivities that are sponsored by the state government at the historic city. The apex court rejected the plea that the invitation was from the State to open festivities and said there was no justification for the state to differentiate between A, B or C.

The plea that Banu Mushtaq was a non-Hindu and the invitation to her to officially open Hindu festivities related to a Hindu festival did not find sound reasoning with the learned judges who pointedly asked the petitioner if his arguments were in sync with the preamble of the Constitution which declared the state to be secular and quashed the plea with the contempt it deserved.

Earlier, even the Karnataka High Court had junked the plea on September 15 finding no reason for Hindu sentiments to feel hurt if a non-Hindu opened the festivities. In quashing the plea, the apex court has upheld the stance by the Siddaramaiah Government that it was the state’s prerogative to invite the chief guest whosoever it considered appropriate and it did not interfere with  religious sentiments.