Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 5: The “hijab” row in the BJP-ruled Karnataka has taken a political turn with a section of the students coming to college wearing saffron scarfs and demanding to be allowed to attend the classes with scarfs on as protest against the Muslim girls wanting to be allowed inside the class rooms wearing “hijabs” covering their heads and faces.
The BJP also launched a scathing attack on the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who had decried the move by some school authorities to deny permission to the Muslim girls to wear “hijabs” in the educational institutions and accused him of “communalising education.” The party said if Gandhi thought “hijabs” were essential for girls for getting education, why was he not making if mandatory in the Congress-ruled states.
Amid heated protests by some Muslim girls to be allowed to attend classes wearing a hijab, a group of students again marched to their college wearing saffron scarves. Videos from Kundapur in the Udupi district show boys and girls donning the scarves over their college uniforms and raising the customary “Jai Shri Ram” slogan while going to college. The protests have made national headlines and also triggered political debates, with Congress and the BJP attacking each other over the issue.
In the video clips, Muslim students can be seen in a separate queue wearing headscarves over their uniforms. A police vehicle is also seen stationed near the college. Police personnel were breaking up groups of saffron-clad protestors who had gathered near what appears to be a market area and raised slogans, the videos show.
Earlier Muslim girl students of the Government Junior College in headscarves and supported by the boys launched a sit-in protest in front of the college gate and argued with the principal Ramakrishna GJ after they were denied entry into the campus. College rules allow students to wear the hijab in class but not during lessons, according to officials.
But Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said children should “neither wear the hijab nor saffron scarves” in school. “Schools are the place where children belonging to all religions should learn together and imbibe a feeling that we are not different, and all are children of Bharat Mata,” Jnanendra had told reporters.
“There are religious organisations who think otherwise, I have asked the police to keep a watch on them. Those who cause hindrance or undermine this country’s unity, they have to be dealt with,” he had said. It was the second such confrontation after protests started a month ago at the PU Girls College in Udupi. Students there are still fighting to be allowed to sit in class wearing a hijab.
The protests have made national headlines with many questioning the move to not allow girls into the college. Politicians have also attacked each other for their stand on the issue. On the occasion of Saraswati Puja (Vasant Panchami) on Saturday Rahul Gandhi, alluding to the decision by the college authorities not to allow wearing the hijab in the classroom, tweeted “we are robbing the future of the daughters of India. By letting students’ hijab come in the way of their education, we are robbing the future of the daughters of India. Ma Saraswati gives knowledge to all. She doesn’t differentiate,” the Gandhi said.
Strongly reacting to his tweet, the Karnataka BJP slammed Gandhi for “communalising education. By communalising education, CONgress co-owner Rahul Gandhi has once again proved that he is dangerous to the future of India. If hijab is very much essential to get educated, why doesn’t Rahul Gandhi make it mandatory in states ruled by CONgress?” the Karnataka BJP tweeted. The Karnataka High Court is due to hear petitions of Muslim students questioning hijab restriction in college.
Karnataka has been seeing instances of Muslim students turning up at colleges in hijab and not allowed in the class rooms. To counter it, several Hindu boys have been turning up wearing saffron shawls, but they too have been barred from entering classrooms. Such cases have been reported in five colleges in Udupi district in coastal Karnataka.
Amid the ongoing row of colleges not allowing hijab-clad students inside the campus, Karnataka BJP state chief Nalin Kumar Kateel said the government will not allow “Talibanisation”. “There is no scope for Hijab or any such thing in the schools. Schools are the temples of ‘Saraswati’ (Goddess of knowledge). It is the duty of the students to learn and abide by the regulations of the school,” he said. The BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal in a scathing attack said once the “hijab” demand was fulfilled, they would seek permission to wear Burqa and then to construct a mosque inside the school.
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai held a meeting on Friday on the row and asked educational institutions to follow existing uniform related rules. Protests continued on Saturday as hijab-clad students took out rallies demanding their right to wear the hijab in classrooms. Raising slogans like ‘We want justice’ and ‘Gundagardi Nahi Chalegi’ Muslim students staged demonstrations in the district headquarters town of Kalaburagi.