Even as the Karnataka High court is all set to hear the Hijab-related writ petition on Tuesday, the government is now probing the six girls of Government PU College in Udupi, who are demanding permission to wear the Hijab inside the classroom. The issue is now heating up, with protests against and in support of the girls being witnessed across the state, with saffron shawls or headscarves.
BJP MLA Raghupati Bhat confirmed the probe by the government to News18, saying state Home Minister Araga Dnyanendra had asked the police department to probe any links that the girls and their parents could have with other organisations.
Any meetings attended by the girls, and their call records will be under scrutiny, the MLA said. According to Bhat, it was important to ascertain if the girls were being investigated by any international or terror organisations.
Meanwhile, two persons were also arrested on charges of brandishing knives during the hijab-saffron shawl protest by students at Kundapur town in Udupi, police said on Monday. They were arrested near the government pre-university college on a tip-off that five people arrived at the spot with lethal weapons to create communal tension on Friday, police sources said. The accused have been identified as Abdul Majeed (32) and Rajab (41), both hailing from Gangolli in Kundapur taluk. Police are on the lookout for three other persons suspected to be involved in the case.
Protests Continue, Spread to Other Parts of K’taka
The hijab-saffron shawl row in the junior colleges at Kundapur in Karnataka’s Udupi district continued on Monday, with students in two junior colleges trying to defy the government order mandating uniforms stipulated by the state government or respective managements of the institutions.
The state education department had issued the order on Saturday. A group of students studying at Venkataramana College in Kundapur came in a procession to the college on Monday wearing saffron shawls. They were prevented from entering the premises by the college principal and the police personnel present there.
The students said they will wear the shawls if hijab-wearing girls were allowed in classes. They agreed to enter the classes removing their shawls only after the principal assured them that no hijab-wearing students will be allowed to enter classrooms. At the Government PU College in Kundapur also, the principal talked to Muslim girl students who came wearing hijabs and explained to them the government’s order. As the students continued to insist on wearing the headscarves, they were asked to go to a separate room arranged for them.
There was widespread criticism against the way the girls were made to protest outside the college gate last week.
‘Only Demanding Our Right’
All eyes are now on the Karnataka High Court which will be hearing the petition over the ‘hijab’ row, as the controversial issue refuses to die down across the state. A section of Muslim girls are demanding permission wearing headscarves to college, while the state government has cracked the whip making uniforms mandatory for students attending classes in educational institutions. There have been several instances during the last few days, especially in coastal Karnataka, where some Muslim girl students, turning up in hijab, were not being allowed into classes, and Hindu boys responding with saffron shawls, also being barred from classes.
The hijab row has also taken a political colour, as the ruling BJP has stood strongly in support of uniform-related rules being enforced by educational institutions, calling the headscarf, a religious symbol, while the opposition Congress has come out in support of protesting Muslim girls. The issue that initially began in January at a Government PU College in Udupi where six students who attended classes wearing headscarves in violation of the stipulated dress code were sent out, has spread to a few other colleges in the city and in nearby Kundapur and Byndoor.
There have also been reports of similar instances of students turning up at educational institutions with either hijab or saffron shawl in Ramdurg PU College in Belagavi and a college in Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga, and also a group of girls staging demonstration in Mysuru and Kalaburagi in favour of the hijab.
A Muslim girl student who was not allowed to attend class for wearing hijab in Kundapur had said, “We are not here for staging any protest or agitation, we are only demanding our right…hijab is our right. We are only asking to let us attend the classes with it, like we used to attend earlier. If we are suddenly asked to remove our hijab, how can we do it?”
Students Who Can’t Adhere to Dress Code Should Explore Other Options: State Education Minister
Meanwhile, state Education Minister B C Nagesh told CNN-News18 there images had also many are many images of girls where they were not wearing Hijab. He said the extremist Islamic body Popular Front of India (PFI) was the main organisation behind the row, along with ‘some political parties’.
B C Nagesh on Sunday said students who are unwilling to adhere to the uniform dress code are at liberty to explore other options. “Just as rules are followed in the military, the same is to be done here (in educational institutions) as well. Options are open for those who are not willing to follow it, which they can make use of,” Nagesh told reporters in Mysuru. The minister appealed to the students not to become ‘tools’ in the hands of political parties.
The Bommai government had on Saturday issued a circular banning clothes which disturbed peace, harmony and, law and order in the educational institutions across the state. On the circular, Nagesh said the government felt the need to clarify on this matter and issued a circular. He also clarified that the students can to come to the school wearing Hijab, but inside the campus they have to place it in their bags.
Wondering why the problem emerged all of a sudden when students of all the faiths were coming to schools wearing uniform, he said everyone was learning and playing together with a sense of equality but never ever have religious differences cropped up. According to Nagesh, trouble began in December when some children in Udupi were instigated to wear Hijab saying ‘Sharia’ (Islamic law) prescribes such dress code and they were duty-bound to abide by it. The minister further claimed that many children were asked to do so but a majority of them did not agree.
“In Udupi school where the incident occurred, out the 92 Muslim children only six girls came wearing Hijab and succumbed to the ‘poisonous seeds’. Other children came to the school wearing their school uniform,” he said.
Rejecting the Congress party’s charge that the BJP government does not want Muslim students to continue their studies, Nagesh pointed out that the Karnataka Education Act was not brought by the BJP but Congress, which had ruled for maximum years in the state.
Police to Investigate Communal Forces: Home Minister
Home minister Araga Jnanendra on the issue has said that the uniform of a school is a thing that should be followed, adding that it “helps the children to forget the differences and unite as Indians.”
According to Jnanendra, worshipping places were there to “to follow our religions”, and that he had “informed the police force to investigate the communal forces who are behind this incident.”
Meanwhile, BJP OBC Morcha Gen Secy and Udupi College Development Committee vice-president, Yashpal Suvarna, spoke on the issue, saying “they (protesting students) aren’t interested in education, they can’t tolerate development of country…Hindu Rashtra is our main agenda,” ANI reported.
With inputs from PTI
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