Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Hijab controversy in Karnataka for raking up the issue to allegedly create tensions.
"What does the government have to do with who wears what? Why the hijab controversy? Why are you charging up the atmosphere?," said Rao in the state assembly.
Karnataka High Court today dismissed several petitions challenging the ban on Hijab in education institutions and said that wearing a Hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam. It held that the prescription of uniform is a reasonable restriction that students could not object to and dismissed petitions challenging a ban on Hijab in education institutions.
The Hijab row erupted in January this year when the Government PU College in Udupi allegedly barred six girls wearing hijab from entering the college. Following this, the girls sat in protest outside the college over being denied entry.
After this, boys of several colleges in Udupi started attending classes wearing saffron scarves. This protest spread to other parts of the state leading to a massive uproar.
As a result, the Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and it banned both hijab and saffron scarves. On February 5, the pre-University education board released a circular stating that the students can only wear the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious attire will be allowed in colleges.
( With inputs from ANI )
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