I love Hijab’ protests across Karnataka in solidarity with Muslim students ahead of the High Court hearing today as Hijab Row intensifies.
Tensions have risen in Karnataka’s Udupi as the Hijab Row versus Saffron shawl controversy flared on Tuesday with fresh protests erupting outside Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi. There is stone-pelting outside Shimoga College as hijab versus saffron row surges. In the meantime, overwhelming support has risen for the hijab-wearing girls across the state with ‘I love Hijab’ protests across Karnataka in solidarity with Muslim students.
In disturbing visuals, as never witnessed before on a college campus, large gatherings of girl students took part in a fierce demonstration for their ‘right’ to wear hijab in schools, while hundreds of right-wing students wore saffron stoles-headgears and chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to counter the Hijab protests.
The protest comes just minutes ahead of the all-important hearing in the Karnataka High Court over the hijab restriction in colleges.
Amid the showdown outside the Udupi college, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday asked all the concerned people to maintain peace and let the children study. “The matter will be presented in High Court today, let’s wait for it,” Bommai told reporters after concluding meeting with ministers in Delhi.
Earlier today, the CM had ordered all schools to follow the state’s order (on uniform) until the court’s verdict is out. The Karnataka High Court will soon hear the petitions filed by five girls studying in a Government Pre-University College in Udupi, questioning the restriction on wearing hijab in college.
Upset students outside Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College college over Hijab row demand equality.
Bommai stated that the Constitution has mentioned in several ways what kind of dress should be worn in schools and colleges and even the Karnataka Education Act has made it clear in the Rules.
Asked why the ‘hijab’ row has refused to die down in the state, the CM said this issue is not limited to Karnataka as it has been discussed in a big way in states such as Kerala and Maharashtra where the matter was decided by high courts.
What is the Karnataka Hijab clash About?
The Hijab protests began on February 4 at the PU Government college in Udupi when some students alleged that they were barred from attending classes as they were wearing hijab.
The Hijab row later spread to other parts of Karnataka and rose into a huge controversy. While Congress leaders supported the wearing of the hijab as a constitutional right (Article 25), BJP was suddenly set out to make new rules, declared that they would not allow the ‘Talibanisation’ of educational institutions. PFI’s student wing Campus Front of India has alleged that the Hijab row’ is a ‘larger conspiracy’ against Muslim women.
IUML gives adjournment notice in Lok Sabha; demands discussion. Exacerbating the controversy, a number of Hindu students, mostly boys, came to college wearing saffron shawls, as a counter to the Muslim girls wearing hijabs. Meanwhile, ‘I love Hijab’ Protests have sprung across Karnataka in solidarity with the Muslim students.
Protests Spread to Shivamogga, Hassan; Bajrang Dal Workers Distribute Shawls
A quarrel between Hijab-wearing girls and saffron shawl-wearing students at Shivamogga is being reported. Many students of the Shivamogga government PU college are demanding that Hijab be not allowed in college.
Girls wearing hijab are seeking permission to attend class with hijab at the college, and argue that their studies are getting affected ahead of the crucial exams.
In another incident, members of Bajrang Dal distributed saffron shawl outside PU college in Hassan. After the Bajrang Dal members entered the campus, hijab-wearing girls left the grounds.
Hijab-wearing students refused to remove their headscarves before entering the class, and the Principal and teaching staff had to convince both parties to enter the class without hijab and shawl.
Was it Basavaraj Somappa Bommai’s sole aim to polarize and communalize Karnataka? If so, he has succeeded in disturbing the equilibrium of one of the most progressive states in India, once known as the IT hub of the globe, reducing it into a hub of hate with deep divisions rising in educational premises for the first time.