At a college in Karnataka, 20 girls wearing the hijab pleaded with their principal as the gates closed on them this morning. "There is no rule against wearing the hijab," they shout in videos that have gone viral, as girls at another college in the state continue their campaign to wear the hijab on campus.
The latest videos, from the coastal town of Kundapur in Udupi district, show students of the Government Junior College in headscarves, arguing with their principal, Ramakrishna GJ.
"Why are you stopping us? Is there any rule that stops us from wearing a hijab?" one student asked. Her classmate appealed: "We have just two months to the exams." They were sked by the principal to remove their headscarves first.
The students stood at the gates for six hours, until classes ended.
After a group of girls refused to take off the hijab in class on Wednesday, some 100 boys arrived in saffron shawls.
Fearing an escalation, the college administration met with the BJP MLA from Kundapur, Haladi Srinivas Shetty, who is also a member of the board. The consensus was that there should be no discrimination, that there should be one rule for all.
The girls showed up again today in the hijab.
College rules allow students to wear the hijab in class but not during lessons, according to officials.
But Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said children should "neither wear the hijab nor saffron shawls" in school.
"Schools are the place where children belonging to all religions should learn together and imbibe a feeling that we are not different, and all are children of Bharat Mata," Mr Jnanendra told reporters.
"There are religious organisations who think otherwise, I have asked the police to keep a watch on them. Those who cause hindrance or undermine this country's unity, they have to be dealt with," he said.
In BJP-ruled Karnataka, this is the second such confrontation after protests started a month ago at the PU Girls College in Udupi. Students there are still fighting to be allowed to sit in class wearing a hijab.
The protests began with six students who alleged that they were shut out of classes for weeks because they insisted on wearing the hijab.
Their principal, however, alleged that the girls were creating problems deliberately and that other Muslim students had no objections to the ban on the hijab during classes.
One student approached the High Court.
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