Muslim girl students wearing hijabs talk with authorities at the Government Pre-University College in Kundapur town in India's Karnataka state on Feb. 7. (Photo by Dinesh Rayappana Matt/AFP)
A ban on wearing the hijab (headscarves worn by Muslim women in public) inside premises of junior colleges in India's Karnataka state has opinions divided among religious communities.
Amid protests, the state's top court is likely to hear an aggrieved student's petition on Feb. 8.
Protests started when six hijab-wearing students of a college in Udupi district were prevented from entering classrooms, and then spread to colleges across the southern state.
The protests by Muslim students were countered by Hindu students who sought to attend classes wearing saffron scarves, leading to disruption of classes.
Meanwhile, police arrested two Muslim men for allegedly carrying weapons during the protests near Government Pre-University College in Kundapur, Udupi district. Three other suspects reportedly managed to flee.
Father Faustine Lucas Lobo, the spokesperson of the Karnataka Catholic Bishops’ Council, told UCA News that the growing protests were creating disharmony among different communities in the state.
Father Lobo called the decision to ban hijabs an attempt to target a particular community.
“If wearing hijab is wrong then what about students wearing a saffron scarf,” he asked.The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that rules the state had little to show by way of governance hence it was resorting to targeting minorities, he added.
Muhammad Arif, chairman of the Centre for Harmony and Peace, told UCA News that “the state government cannot dictate what people should eat or wear. It is against human rights.”
Arif also sought to know how Muslims could be banned from wearing the hijab while Sikh and Hindu students continued to sport their traditional headgears.
“Government should punish people who are behind the unnecessary controversy as it will destroy the secular fabric of India,” said the Muslim leader.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the ruling BJP of “robbing the future of the daughters of India.”
Kaneez Fatima, a Congress legislature in Karnataka, said the controversy had stalled the education of many Muslim girls ahead of examinations in the summer.
However, the province’s Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said students should not wear the hijab nor saffron scarves while pursuing their studies as children of 'Bharat Mata' or Mother India.
Jnanendra said an experts committee had been set up to study and resolve the issue. Till then, all students should follow the government order issued on Feb. 5.
The order invoked the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, to make the wearing of a prescribed uniform compulsory in all educational institutions.
This was purportedly done as the state’s education department noticed that in some educational institutions, boys and girls had started wearing clothes according to their religious affiliations.