Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Despite the Karnataka High Court suggesting the state government to re-open schools and colleges immediately, the state government on Saturday extended the holidays for all pre-university colleges till February 15 as a preventive step to maintain peace.
The high schools and colleges were closed in the wake of spark of violence following the hijab row which the high court is scheduled to hear on February 14.
The court has banned all kinds of religious attire till a judgment is passed in the case. Pre-university students are scheduled to have their final exams from April 16. The colleges have remained shut since February 9 after the hijab row erupted. The higher education department has announced the closure of all first-grade and postgraduate colleges as well as universities and technical institutes till February 16.
The police held flag marches in the communally sensitive twin districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi after a couple of incidents were reported.
Education department officials visited a school in Ankathadka in Dakshina Kannada after a video emerged of students purportedly offering the Friday Namaz in a classroom there on February 4. A department official said the students offered Friday prayers without the knowledge of their teachers. According to sources, the students started praying in classrooms after the school authorities turned down their request for more recess time on Fridays to visit mosques.
Block Education Officer Lokesh C said a report had been sought on the issue and that action would be initiated. The teachers have now directed the students not to engage in any religious activities inside classrooms.
In Bengaluru, a private school teacher was suspended for allegedly making derogatory remarks about religious clothing. As people gathered in front of the school on Saturday morning, one of the parents, Shahabuddin, told reporters that the hijab was not an issue in the state capital. “This school has about 80 per cent Muslim students, and there is no divide between Hindus and Muslims. But a teacher used derogatory language while referring to a section of students, which prompted us to come to the school. It has been solved.”
S Rajendra, deputy director of public instruction for Bengaluru South, visited the school along with police.
The Udupi BJP MLA Raghupathi Bhat claimed that he had received threat calls from local numbers and international numbers of unidentified people after the hijab ban snowballed into a controversy. Bhat is the president of the college development monitoring committee of Government Girls Pre-University College of Udupi, where the controversy started. He said he had informed Home Minister Araga Jnanendra of the calls.
Meanwhile, a day after US ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom (IRF) Rashad Hussain said hijab ban in Karnataka schools “violated religious freedom,” India on Saturday hit back by saying that “motivated comments on our internal issues are not welcome.”
In response to media queries on India’s reaction to comments by some countries on dress code in some educational institutions in Karnataka, the Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi in a statement said, “A matter regarding dress code in some educational institutions in the State of Karnataka is under judicial examination by the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka.”
“Our constitutional framework and mechanisms, as well as our democratic ethos and polity, are the context in which issues are considered and resolved. Those who know India well would have a proper appreciation of these realities. Motivated comments on our internal issues are not welcome,” he added.
Hussain’s comment came in the wake of the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar having met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Melbourne on Friday when the two leaders reviewed the efforts to strengthen cooperation bilaterally and through the Quad grouping in the strategic Indian Ocean region.
Hussain, who has served as US Special Envoy of the former president Barack Obama to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), was recently appointed as the US envoy for international religious freedom by the Biden administration. Hussain had on Friday said “Karnataka should not determine permissibility of religious clothing” and Hijab bans in schools “violate religious freedom and stigmatize and marginalize women and girls.”
In a tweet, he stated, “Religious freedom includes the ability to choose one’s religious attire. The Indian state of Karnataka should not determine permissibility of religious clothing. Hijab bans in schools violate religious freedom and stigmatize and marginalize women and girls.”
Born in the US, Hussain studied at the Yale Law School and also earned his Master’s degrees in Public Administration (Kennedy School of Government) and Arabic and Islamic Studies from Harvard University. His father hailed from Bihar. Earlier, Pakistan had also raised the issue of the hijab row and summoned the Indian diplomat in Islamabad to convey its concern on the developments in Karnataka.