Two FIRs have been lodged in Karnataka following a wave of Islamophobic and offensive social media posts targeting Booker Prize-winning writer Banu Mushtaq, who was invited to inaugurate the upcoming Mysuru Dasara festival.
The first FIR, filed on August 23, names Jagadish Udupa for a Facebook post claiming that inviting a Muslim writer to a Hindu festival “insults the great Hindu religion just to please one community.” The second FIR, registered at Karkala rural police station, was over another post questioning why someone who “does not accept Sanatana Hindu culture” should preside over the festival and attacking the Congress as “anti-Hindu.” Both FIRs were filed under Section 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which penalizes content likely to incite communal disharmony.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defended the government’s decision, calling Mushtaq a “progressive thinker” with a legacy of activism in the Raitha Sangha and Kannada Chaluvali movements. “Such a woman is most deserving to inaugurate Dasara,” he said.
Former Karnataka minister Basangouda Patil Yatnal, recently expelled from the BJP, questioned Mushtaq’s Islamic faith on social media, arguing that it conflicted with the Hindu traditions of the festival.
Banu Mushtaq, a writer, lawyer, and activist, won the 2025 International Booker Prize for her short story collection Heart Lamp. Mysuru Dasara will begin on September 23 and conclude with the grand Vijayadasami procession on October 2.
