Overview

• International Booker Prize–winning Kannada author Banu Mushtaq has been named to inaugurate Mysuru Dasara on September 22, with Vijayadashami on October 2.
• BJP figures including C T Ravi, Pratap Simha, Tejasvi Surya and expelled MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal questioned her suitability for temple rituals, with some urging her to publicly clarify her beliefs.
• Home minister G. Parameshwara described Dasara as a national festival and a senior official from the chief minister’s office said there is nothing wrong with her role, noting the 2017 inauguration by poet K.S. Nissar Ahmad.
• Mushtaq said she has accepted the invitation and called it an honour for Kannada literature, declining to respond to the criticism.
• Udupi police registered two cases over allegedly communal Facebook posts about the invitation as a 2023 video of Mushtaq’s comments on Kannada symbolism resurfaced online.