"Hijab Case Used For Political Gain": Plea To Defer Hearing, Citing Polls

Pointing out that political parties are raking up the hijab controversy for electoral goals in the ongoing Assembly polls, the counsel representing the petitioners in the case has urged the Karnataka High Court to adjourn the hearing till February 28.

In his interlocutory application, advocate Mohammad Tahir, advocate for Ayesha Almas and four other students from the Udupi government junior college for women, has cited the ongoing elections in five states, including the politically significant Uttar Pradesh, and stated that political parties are using the issue to polarise and pit communities against each other.

The application also warns that "any mischievous act of any person will further stoke communal division".

The Karnataka High Court is hearing a clutch of petitions from girl students, challenging the bar on the use of head scarves in educational institutions. The issue has triggered protests across the state and scenes on campuses that forced the government to shut schools for a few days.

As schools reopened for students up to Class 10 yesterday, social media was flooded with visuals from campuses where teachers insisted that students remove headscarves before entering the premises.

The high court has appealed for peace and urged the state government to reopen the schools so that students can return to their classes. "Pending consideration of all these petitions, we restrain all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawls (Bhagwa), scarfs, hijab, religious flags or the like within the classroom, until further orders," it has said.

The hijab row has made its way into the speeches of political leaders amid a charged political atmosphere owing to the ongoing polls.

Stressing that a dress code should be followed in schools, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said the country will run by the Constitution and not by Islamic law Shariat.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has backed the protesting students in Karnataka, emphasising that whether it is a "bikini, a ghoonghat, a pair of jeans, or a hijab", it is a woman's right to decide what she wants to wear and this right is protected by the Constitution.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday spoke up in support of college students in Karnataka who have been banned from wearing the hijab in classrooms, tweeting that the choice of what clothes to wear was theirs alone, and that this right is protected by the Constitution.

Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, has said a girl wearing hijab will become the Prime Minister of the country one day.