Banu Mushtaq
Credit: DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V
Bengaluru: Naveddu Nilladiddare (if we do not stand), a network of women’s organisations, has opposed the PIL petition filed in the High Court of Karnataka against inviting Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq for inaugurating Dasara.
Speaking at a press meet on Thursday, Activist Akkai Padmashali said, “Karnataka is known as a peaceful garden of all religions (Sarvajanangada Shanthiya Thota). We request the government to not step back from their decision.”
Dasara is not celebrated in anyone’s house or is not celebrated by a sect, it is a state’s festival and religious extremists cannot stop it, she added.
Speaking about Banu Mushtaq’s contribution to Kannada literature, the members said that she was a lawyer fighting injustice in society and her literary work in Kannada had taken Kannada a step forward on the global stage.
Social activists Vasundhara Bhupathi, Sunandamma, R Poornima and N Gayatri were present.
The members also questioned as to why the nomination of renowned Kannada writer K S Nissar Ahmed was accepted despite both of them belonging to the same community. “It is highly regrettable that now when a distinguished woman writer, lawyer and leader from the same marginalised community who has been selected to inaugurate the state festival has been stirred into a controversy by the opposition,” said one of the members.
The organisation accused the BJP of being “anti-minority and anti-women”.