Hijab row snowballs, Karnataka schools, colleges shut for 3 days

Incidents of stone pelting and use of force by police were reported on Tuesday as the hijab row in Karnataka escalated and protests by students spread to more colleges prompting the state government to declare a three-day holiday for all educational institutions.

As the Karnataka high court and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealed to all students and people to maintain peace and calm, Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh claimed that according to a report the Campus Front of India (CFI) is said to have incited the hijab row, and this will be investigated.

CFI is the student wing of the Islamic outfit Popular Front of India(PFI).

The high court, which is looking into pleas by some Muslim girl students on their right to wear a headscarf and will resume hearing on Wednesday, observed that only 'some mischievous people' were keeping the hijab issue burning.

Nagesh told reporters that out of about 5,000-plus Pre-University colleges in the state that function, a 'conflict-like' situation has been created in about 10-12 institutions and in some degree colleges due to the hijab and saffron shawl controversy.

As the hijab row evoked mixed reactions in Karnataka and elsewhere in the country, visuals of a group of boys heckling a hijab-clad girl in Mandya, near Bengaluru, went viral.

The student, who asserted that the protest demanding the girls' right to wear hijab would continue, said she had the support of her teachers and claimed that the boys with saffron shawls who heckled her were 'outsiders'.

"Everyone in the class...our principal and lecturers have supported us," she told NDTV.

Her friends were of the opinion that those who had heckled her were outsiders, she added, as the girl received support on the social media.

Two former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir -- Omar Abdullah of the National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti of the People's Democratic Party -- condemned the incident.

Protests erupted at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi after a large group of students wearing saffron stoles and head-gears raised slogans in the college campus while hijab-clad Muslim girls were staging a protest demanding justice.

Tension prevailed at some educational institutions in Udupi, Shivamogga and Bagalkote, forcing the police and authorities to intervene.

A stone pelting incident was reported near a college in Bagalkote's Rabkavi Banhatti and a few students even tried to barge into the campus.

Police dispersed them using mild force.

A couple of students and a teacher are said to be injured in the incident.

A similar incident was also reported from Shivamogga district, and police had to intervene to bring the tense situation under control.

Police have detained some people including students. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) were clamped in Shivamogga city for two days.

Some students even tried to hoist the saffron flag at the college premises in Shivamogga.

Protests by students were also reported at educational institutions in the districts of Vijayapura, Gadag, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere and Chitradurga.

Chief Minister Bommai appealed to all students, teachers and management of schools and colleges as well as people of Karnataka to maintain peace and harmony.

'I have ordered the closure of all high schools and colleges for the next three days. All concerned are requested to cooperate,' Bommai, who is in New Delhi, said in a tweet.

Speaking to reporters, he appealed to the Opposition and the people concerned not to escalate the situation by making 'provocative' statements and to wait for the high court order.

The state government is going by the law on dress code and the same stand has been put before the court, he said.

After hearing the petitions filed by some students studying in a Government Pre-University College for Girls in the coastal town of Udupi, Justice Krishna S Dixit said, 'this court requests the students and the public to maintain peace and tranquillity. This court has full faith in the wisdom and virtue of public at large and hopes that the same would be put to practice'.

He also pointed out that agitations, sloganeering and students attacking each other were not good.

Noting that religious forces behind such incidents have to be checked and everyone should think about the country, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said in a video message, "We should all stand together as brothers, as the children of this country. Uniform is a sign of equality. Educational institutions are not the place for practising our religion or to showcase our costumes."

Amid the raging hijab row, the state government last week had issued an order making uniforms prescribed by it or management of private institutions mandatory for its students at schools and pre-university colleges across the state.

The hijab controversy that first erupted in January at a government PU College in Udupi, where six students who attended classes wearing headscarf in violation of the stipulated dress code were asked to leave the campus, has spread to different parts of the state with Hindu students too responding by turning up in saffron shawls.

Such saffron-clad students are also being barred from entering classes.

The row has also taken a political colour as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party 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 Muslim girls.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi backed the women students.

'The young Muslim women students in Karnataka have demonstrated great courage under extreme provocation from Hindutva mobs. Their conduct in pursuit of their constitutional rights has been exemplary. The state has been complicit in this evil behaviour,' he said in a tweet.

Union minister Giriraj Singh slammed those supporting Muslim girl students' right to wear it and wondered if the mindset promoting an Islamic state is behind this.

"Are they working for an Islamic state," he said, alleging people believing in the concept of 'Ghazwa-e-Hind' (Islamic conquest of India) are fuelling protests for Muslim girls' right to wear the traditional garb. He was talking to reporters in Delhi.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, who hails from Karnataka, told reporters that everyone should follow the dress code in schools and alleged that some politicians and fanatics have made it an issue.

"Wearing uniform is a routine thing, why are they making it an issue? And when school has issued a guideline, everyone should follow it. What is the fuss about it? Undertakings have also been given by students and their parents to follow the dress code," Joshi said.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed in the Lok Sabha that atrocities are being committed against people who wear Hijab and demanded a statement from the government on the growing controversy on the issue in Karnataka.

A minister from the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh said hijab was not part of the uniform and therefore it should be banned.

School Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar said that a 'dress code' will be implemented in schools in the state to ensure that a sense of equality prevails among students.

He alleged that 'systematic efforts' are being made to disturb the country's environment on the issue of wearing a hijab.