Bengaluru, Sept. 20 -- Karnataka Minister Sharan Prakash Patil welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the petition against the invitation to Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq to inaugurate Mysuru Dasara festivities, and slammed the BJP for "discriminatory ideas".

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Sharan Prakash Patil said that the BJP's opposition to Mushtaq's invitation is not in the spirit of secularism.

"If a woman is inaugurating an event, we should all be happy about it. It is very regressive of the BJP to be floating such ideas. This is not in the spirit of secularism... These discriminatory ideas that the BJP was floating in public have been squashed. I am happy about it," he said.

Earlier, Karnataka Chief Minister Sidda...