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A faculty member talks with the students wearing hijab, after the school authorities denied them entry for wearing hijab in Kundapura of Udupi district. (PTI/File) The Opposition Congress on Monday brought up in Lok Sabha the controversy over hijab ban in Karnataka’s colleges, with the party alleging that the move was an attempt to clamp down on the religious and cultural identity of Muslim women in the country.
Congress MP from Kerala T N Prathapan said constitutional rights of all citizens must be protected.
“Hijab is a part of cultural and religious identity of Muslim women. It is like mangal sutra for Hindus, cross for Christians and turbans for Sikhs. In our country, there are some people who terrorise everything they want,” Prathapan said during the Zero Hour.
His remark prompted a protest from several BJP leaders in Lok Sabha.
Without naming anyone, the Kerala MP said: “If they see a Sikh man with turban protesting against their government, they will call him a Khalistani terrorist. If they see a Christian in her holy dress travelling in a train, they will attack her… If they see a Muslim girl with a hijab, they will stop her education,” he said.
The issue began last month when a pre-university college in Udupi prohibited Muslim students wearing headscarves or hijabs from entering classes. As the girls began protesting, the controversy spread to other parts of Karnataka and Hindu students wearing saffron scarves held counter-protest marches.
On February 5, the BJP-led Karnataka government validated the decisions of the state education institutions prohibiting Muslim girls from wearing a ban and said in a directive that “clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn”.
Among the BJP leaders to protest in Lok Sabha was Nalin Kateen, the Karnataka BJP president, who has previously supported the hijab ban and said that they will not allow “talibanisation” of the education system.
“Where are we taking India to? We cannot lose our diversity,” the Congress MP said on Monday, urging the Union Education ministry to intervene in the matter. “That is the real sab ka saath and sab ka vikas,” he said.
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