The controversy over headscarves in Karnataka has intensified, with students defying the government order to use uniform clothing to maintain "unity and equality". All schools and colleges in Karnataka will be shut for the next three days amid the row over wearing hijab by students.
Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai tweeted he has ordered all high schools and colleges to remain shut "to maintain peace and harmony". The Karnataka High Court is hearing petitions filed by five women from a government college in Udupi, questioning hijab restrictions.
The high court, which heard the matter today, will continue the hearing tomorrow. The court also asked students and the public at large to maintain peace. "This court has full faith in the wisdom and virtue of public at large and it hopes that the same would be put to practice," Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad said.
Ahead of the High Court hearing on the row, Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai appealed to everyone to maintain peace. "The matter is before the High Court and it will be decided there... I appeal to everyone to maintain peace... All should follow the state's order (on uniform) until the court decides," he said.
The controversy started last month at the Government Girls PU college in Udupi district as six students alleged that they had been barred from classes for wearing headscarf and many Muslim girls took up the practice in protest.
Right-wing groups in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru objected to headscarves and the protests spread across the state. In retaliation, many students turned up in saffron scarves. Dalit students adopted blue scarves in support of hijab-wearing girls.
Two colleges declared holiday to avoid communal trouble. Another college allowed students wearing the hijab in separate classrooms.
Education Minister BC Nagesh has said students who insist on wearing hijab (head scarves) not be allowed into government educational institutions. He also ordered that women protesters be confined to a separate room of the colleges.
Here are the Highlights on Hijab Row:
The controversy over the wearing of hijab (headscarves) by students crossed the state borders of Karnataka and surfaced in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry today.
The hijab versus saffron scarf row in Karnataka colleges took a chilling form when a student in a burqa was heckled by a large group of slogan-shouting, saffron scarf-wearing boys in a college in Mandya.
The video of a confrontation between a Muslim student and a saffron-wearing group has emerged from the Mandya pre-University college.
In the video, the young woman parks her scooter and heads to the college building when students wearing saffron scarves shout "Jai Shri Ram" and advance towards her.
The Muslim student shouts back: "Allah hu Akbar!"
Amid spiraling protests by Karnataka college students over their right to wear a hijab during classes, members of a state-based right-wing group have been caught on camera asking some students of a college in Udupi district to sneak saffron scarves into the college as a form of counter-protest.
NDTV confronted a member of the Hindu Jagrana Vedike after he was spotted persuading students of the SV College in Kundapur taluk to carry the saffron scarves in their bags; this was after Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said students should not wear hijabs or saffron scarves when in class.
A massive crowd of students, one group wearing hijab and boys waving saffron scarves, gathered outside a college in Karnataka this morning in a snowballing confrontation on a day the High Court takes up a petition challenging a ban on the hijab on campus.
As two groups stood at the gates of the MGM college in Udupi, a large number of policemen were called in to control the chaos.
Students wearing saffron scarves and headgears were allowed to enter the college as young women in the hijab stayed outside the gates, protesting what they alleged was discrimination.
