Rahul joins Karnataka hijab row
"By letting students' hijab come in the way of their education, we are robbing the future of the daughters of India. Ma Saraswati gives knowledge to all. She doesn't differentiate," he tweeted on the occasion of Basant Panchami.
Bengaluru: Amid hijab controversy spilling over to other parts of Karnataka, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said future of female students were being robbed by allowing such issue come in the way of their education.
“By letting students’ hijab come in the way of their education, we are robbing the future of the daughters of India. Ma Saraswati gives knowledge to all. She doesn’t differentiate,” he tweeted on the occasion of Basant Panchami.
The controversy began in a government pre-university college in Udupi when six students were restricted from wearing hijabs during class hours. In its reaction, a large number of Hindu students began to come to the educational institutions wearing saffron scarves.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai held a meeting on Friday with Education Minister BC Nagesh and top government officials. During the meeting, the government directed educational institutions to maintain the status quo of not allowing students to wear either hijabs or saffron scarves on college premises, until Karnataka High Court gives its verdict.
It was the Congress, Nagesh said, who introduced School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) rules on dress code in 1985, therefore it does not have rights to blame the BJP government. Sri Ram Sena president Pramod Muthalik alleged that radical Islamist organisations like People’s Front of India and others were fuelling the hijab controversy.
He alleged that protesting Muslim students are from Kapu from where three Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) members have won local elections. Batting for Muslim students, Congress leader Siddaramaiah said it was their right to wear hijab in educational institutions and launched a tirade against the BJP government.
