Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij (File Photo) Haryana Home Minister, Anil Vij, on Wednesday waded into the ongoing hijab controversy and said that “a person, who doesn’t want to follow the dress code of school or college, should stay at home”.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the minister said: “If anyone wants to wear hijab then that person may wear it and there is no objection to it. But if he (or she) wants to go to school or college, then he or she has to follow that place’s dress code or that person should stay at home.”
Prodded about the ongoing controversy over ‘hijab’ in Karnataka on Tuesday, Haryana’s Education Minister, Kanwar Pal Gurjar, had told The Indian Express, “We don’t have such an issue here.”
The protests over the hijab ban in colleges has slowly been spiralling out of control in Karnataka, with incidents of stone-pelting and lathicharge being reported from at least four districts of the state on Wednesday. The Karnataka government has scrambled to contain the situation by declaring a holiday in high schools and colleges for the next three days.
Meanwhile, the All India Democratic Women Association (AIDWA)’s Haryana unit on Wednesday criticised the Karnataka government “for failing in protecting the rights of Muslim community students there”. In a statement released on Wednesday, AIDWA state unit president Usha Saroha and general secretary, Savita said, “These students are being denied their right of education just because of wearing hijab. The Karnataka government has not followed its constitutional duty to protect their right to education.”
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