Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 9: Even as the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh back-tracked on the “hijab” issue clarifying that it had no plans to ban “hijabs” in schools and colleges, the issue continued to burn in another BJP-ruled state Karnataka forcing the police to ban any protest demonstrations within 200 metres of an educational institution for two weeks.
The wait for the Karnataka government to derive a decision on the issue from the High Court only got longer on Wednesday as the single judge hearing the petition of the Muslim girls challenging the ban on hijab referred the matter to a larger bench even as disturbances spread to more areas and the college authorities closing down their institutions for a few days to avoid confrontation between the two protesting groups.
The Karnataka cabinet on Wednesday decided to wait for the High Court’s verdict on the ‘hijab’ row, before taking any further decision on the matter, which has snowballed into a major controversy.
“We (at the cabinet) discussed the Hijab row, but as the High Court is hearing the matter, we felt it is not appropriate for the cabinet to take any further decisions on the issue today. It was decided to wait for the court’s verdict before taking any decision,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said. Briefing the reporters about the cabinet decisions, he said as the matter is sub-judice, discussing it will not be appropriate, as material and merit of the case will get involved.
As protests for and against the hijab intensified in different parts of Karnataka and turned violent in some places, the government had declared a holiday to all high schools and colleges in the state for three days.
In MP, where the school education minister Inder Singh Parmar had supported the hijab ban and hinted that the MP government too was considering to follow the suit, the state home minister and the cabinet spokesman Narottam Mishra on Wednesday set at rest any speculation on the issue flatly rejecting Parmar’s stand.
“There is no controversy over (the wearing of) hijab in Madhya Pradesh. No proposal is under consideration by the state government regarding a ban,” Mishra said. “There should be no confusion in this regard,” he told reporters in Bhopal. Mishra claimed that Parmar’s statement was “wrongly interpreted.” Mishra also refused to comment on the controversy in Karnataka pointing out that the matter was under the consideration of the High Court there and all should wait for its judgement on the issue.
Mishra’s statement comes amid protests in Karnataka where right-wing groups have targeting Muslim girls over their right to wear a hijab in classrooms. His statement comes a day after the Parmar had stated that hijabs should be banned in educational institutions but after Mishra’s statement claimed that his remarks were wrongly interpreted.
“Some people wrongly interpreted my remarks… We are not going to implement a new uniform code. Present arrangement in schools regarding uniforms will continue,” he said. However the minister also said: “If this (the wearing of hijab) happens then it (the ban) will be brought in here also. We will take action accordingly.”
What began with six girls protesting in Karnataka’s Udupi district has snowballed over the past few weeks into protests at colleges in several others, including Mandya and Shivamogga.
Apart from Karnataka there have also been reports from Puducherry of a teacher objecting to a student wearing the hijab. Karnataka’s BJP government, meanwhile, has been largely silent as it waits for a decision by the High Court on a petition by five women questioning the restrictions on wearing hijabs. This evening the High Court referred the matter to a larger bench.
The single judge Bench directed the registry to place the petitions before the Chief Justice for constituting a larger Bench. “Considering the enormity of the importance of questions of law debated, this court is of the considered opinion that the petition papers be put at the hands of the honourable Chief Justice to consider if a larger Bench can be constituted in the subject matter,” said Justice Krishna S. Dixit in his brief order.
On the request of the advocates representing petitioner Muslim girl students from Udupi district to permit the petitioners to attend classes wearing a hijab as an interim measure till a larger bench is set up, the court said arguments for an interim order can be made before the larger Bench constituted by the Chief Justice. Earlier, the Judge orally indicated that the practice in courts shows that larger Benches had decided legal issues related to personal laws.
On Tuesday, the court had heard partial arguments on behalf of one of the petitioners questioning the validity of the Government Order issued on February 5 empowering school and per-university college authorities to prescribe uniforms in the respective educational institution. The court had also requested the students and the people in general to maintain peace.
What started in Udupi district has now spread to colleges to other districts of Karnataka, creating law and order problems on some campuses. It impacted three more colleges in the coastal belt on Tuesday forcing them to declare a holiday even before the state government took the decision to close down all high schools and colleges for three days. The colleges declared a holiday to bring the situation under control after some students turned up with saffron shawls with saffron peta and hijab.
Hence, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Pre University and Degree Colleges, both situated on the same premises, in Udupi and the Government First Grade College at Vamadapadavu, Bantwal taluka in Dakshina Kannada, declared a holiday. MGM Degree College principal Devidasa Naik told presspersons that the campus of the colleges was a healthy one. The issue over hijab has provoked the students of the colleges which then declared a holiday to bring the situation under control.
Another degree college in Dakshina Kannada, Pompei College at Aikala, had witnessed a row over dress code about a month ago. The controversy was mutually resolved later after students agreed to attend classes wearing uniform.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was awarded the prestigious international award for promoting women’s education, on Wednesday took to Twitter to comment on the Karnataka hijab controversy and said “refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying.”
Ms. Yousafzai, responding to the developments in Karnataka said, “Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists – for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women.”
The Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said it was the woman’s right to decide what she wants to wear, be it a bikini, a ‘ghoonghat’, or a ‘hijab’.
The BJP MP Hema Malini said, “Schools are for education and religious matters should not be taken there. Every school has a uniform that should be respected. You can wear whatever you want outside the school.”
A similar sentiment was also expressed by the Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray who said if there was a prescribed uniform in schools or colleges, it should be followed. “Only education should be the focus at centers of education. Religious or political issues should not be brought to schools/colleges,” he added.
The AIMIM activists put up banners in Maharashtra’s Beed city in support of ‘hijab’ for female Muslim students, and said the Indian Constitution gives the right to citizens to follow their religious culture. The banners, conveying the message ‘pehle hijab fir kitaab’ (hijab first, book later), were displayed on Monday in Bashirganj and Karanja areas of Beed and were removed on Tuesday. Beed city police station’s inspector Ravi Sanap said, “The situation in Beed is peaceful. We told them (the activists) that they had put up the banners without permission. They understood and removed the banners.”