Side-Tracking Hijab Row: Saffron Flag May Some Day Replace National Tricolour: Karnataka Minister
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Even as the “Hijab” row has virtually brought about a Hindu- Muslim conflict in the educational campuses in Karnataka, a state minister has sparked off yet another controversy by making a statement that the saffron flag may replace India’s national tricolour “sooner or later.”
“I may take 100, 200 or even 500 years, but saffron flag may become our national flag,” the Karnataka minister for rural development and panchayat K S Eshwarappa said.
Ignoring the chief minister Basavaraj Bommai’s general request to all to avoid controversial statements in the wake of the hijab row in the state’s schools and colleges, Eshwarappa said the “saffron flag might become the national flag in the future.”
His statement came in connection with the Congress leader DK Shivakumar’s complain that a pro-BJP student had replaced the national tricolour with a saffron flag in the flag post of a college in Shivamogga. “Today in this country, we are discussing Hindutva and Hindu vichara (ideology). People used to laugh at one point when we said a Ram mandir will be constructed in Ayodhya. Aren’t we constructing it now? In the same way, sometime in the future, after 100 or 200 or 500 years, bhagwa dhwaj (saffron flag) may become the national flag. I don’t know,” Eshwarappa told reporters.
He justified his statement by making comparison with the Ramayana era. “Hundreds of years ago, the chariots of Sri Ramachandra and Maruthi had saffron flags on them. Was the tricolour flag there in our country then? Now it (tricolour) is fixed as our national flag. What respect it has to be given should be given by every person…, there is no question about it,” he said. “Now constitutionally we have accepted the tricolour as our national flag. Those who don’t respect it are traitors.”
Eshwarappa also retorted to Kalaburgi North MLA Kaneez Fathima, who recently said she would wear the hijab to the Assembly. The BJP leader immediately responded asking her if she would be allowed inside mosques.
Even as the Bommai government awaited a decision on the Hijab row from the judiciary, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of the Hijab issue petition till February 14.
A three –judge bench of the High Court headed by the chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and two other judges, began hearing petitions on the hijab issue on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had declined a prayer to urgently transfer the cases from the high court to the apex court. The state cabinet too Wednesday decided to await the court verdict before taking any decision on the issue.
Earlier, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said the Karnataka high court was seized of the case and should be allowed to continue with the hearing as also decide it. Seeking transfer of the case and hearing by a nine-judge bench at the apex court, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said, “The problem is that schools and colleges are closed. Girls are being stoned. It’s spreading across the country.” After being told by Sibal that he did not want any order and only listing of the plea, the CJI said, “All right, we will see.” At the outset, Sibal said the matter pertained to what is happening in Karnataka and it is spreading all over and now children from all over the country are getting involved and in the meantime, the examinations are two months away.
The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said, “Please wait. We cannot do anything. Let the high court decide. Why should we look into it immediately? Let the high court hear the matter. Today also the matter is listed before a three-judge bench that is what the information is.” The court said it is “too early to interfere” and some time may be given to the high court to see whether some interim relief is granted.
“Let us see. The problem is if we list the matter here, the high court will never hear,” the CJI said, adding “We are not on merits. Please understand. At least give one day’s time.” As Sibal insisted, the bench said it would consider the request for listing the plea. On Wednesday, Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi constituted a full bench, comprising himself and Justices Krishna S Dixit and J M Khazi, to look into the hijab matter.
The Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant has promulgated prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC against any gathering, agitation, or protests of any type within the area of 200-metre radius from the gates of the schools, pre-university colleges, degree colleges or other similar educational institutions in Bengaluru City for a period of two weeks from Wednesday till February 22.
Without making any reference to the Karnataka Hijab row, the prime minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh elections claimed that the BJP governments at the centre and in the states were “consistently working towards preventing crimes against Muslim women.” He blamed the opposition parties for “standing in the way” of Muslim women’s progress for the sake of votes.
Addressing an election rally in UP’s Saharanpur, the prime minister said that by banning the practice of triple talaq, the BJP government had ensured justice for Muslim women. “But when the Opposition parties saw our Muslim sisters praising Modi, they felt they had to stop them,” he said. “To stop them, they have been coming up with new ways to stand in the way of their rights and aspirations.”
While the BJP government stands with every Muslim woman who is a victim, the party’s detractors have been “misleading” them, PM Modi added. “Those people are tricking Muslim sisters so that the life of Muslim daughters is always behind,” he said. He went on to say that the 2013 Muzzafarnagar riots as well as the violence in Saharanpur in 2017 “are proof of how people are targeted under political patronage.”
Meanwhile, a large number of feminists, democratic groups, collectives, academicians, lawyers and individuals across all the field have together condemned ‘the targeting and exclusion of Hijab wearing Muslim women students’.
“Over a thousand feminists, democratic groups, collectives, academicians, lawyers and individuals across the walks of life came together to condemn the targeting and exclusion of Hijab wearing Muslim women students reaffirming that Hijab is only latest pretext to impose apartheid on and attack Muslim women, following on the heels of Hindu supremacists holding multiple “online auctions” of Muslim women and making speeches calling for their sexual and reproductive enslavement,” the letter read.
Distraught by the Hijab row, the first bench of the Madras High Court also expressed deep concern over the hijab row, particularly the growing tendency of certain forces arousing religious disharmony in the country.
The Madras High Court wondered as to what is paramount — nation or religion. In an observation in the backdrop of a raging debate over the hijab row in Karnataka, the bench of Acting Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthi bemoaned that of late, certain forces have raised controversies relating to dress code and it was spreading all over India. “It is really shocking, somebody is going for the ‘hijab’, some others for the ‘topi’ (cap) and a few others for other things. Is it one country or is it divided by religion or something like that. This is quite surprising,” the bench added.
Pointing out the fact that India was a secular country, the ACJ said: “What is found from the current affairs is nothing but an effort to divide the country in the name of religion.” The ACJ made the observations while hearing a batch of PIL petitions filed by Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam in Tiruchirapalli district.
The Karnataka BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel blamed the “Congress mindset” for the Hijab row in his state and said it was part of the grand old party’s ‘toolkit,’ an attempt to create a wrong impression about India at the world stage. He also hit out at the Congress’ state President D K Shivakumar, accusing him of spreading lies and inciting people.
“As part of the Congress’ toolkit, an attempt is on to create a wrong impression about India at the world stage. It is part of a systematic conspiracy to disturb communal harmony,” Kateel said in a video statement. “For political reasons and due to selfish motives, the Congress is trying to undermine India’s dignity before the world,” he said, adding that the mindset behind the hijab row is Congress’ and it is ‘dangerous.’ The Member of Parliament from Dakshina Kannada was reacting to Shivakumar’s claims that students hoisted saffron flag by replacing the tricolour at the Government First Grade College in Shivamogga, during an anti-hijab protest on Tuesday.
The Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday commented on Hijab row going on in Karnataka. He said, “We should avoid incidents that can further divide society. It’s unfortunate that some people are trying to gain political mileage out of it.” He further said the Indian culture and Constitution doesn’t teach us to divide people on caste and religious lines.
Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) city unit held a demonstration in Pune on Thursday in support of ‘hijab’ for female Muslim students. A number of girls and women held placards with the message ‘hijab is our right, hijab is our pride’, as part of the demonstration in Phule Wada area here in Maharashtra.
Protests for and against the ‘hijab’ had intensified in parts of Karnataka and turned violent in some places on Tuesday after the state government last week issued an order making uniforms prescribed by it or management of private institutions mandatory for its students in schools and pre-university colleges.
Delhi Police detained All India Students’ Association (AISA) workers marching towards Karnataka Bhawan in the national capital to protest over the Hijab row in Karnataka.
