Extremist Hindu groups demand restrictions on wearing the hijab in classroom in more Indian states after court upholds ban on the traditional Muslim head-scarf in State of Karnataka, worrying students who had protested against the ban.
The High Court of Karnataka decision on Tuesday, supporting the southern state ban on the hijab in february a also was hosted by senior federal ministers from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who say the students should avoid wearing religious clothing in to classify.
There’s no national guideline on uniforms in India, and states often leave it to schools to decide what their students should carry.
“We are a Hindu nation and we don’t want see any gender of religious outfit in educational institutions of the country,” said Rishi Trivedi, President of the Hindu-first group Akhil Bharat Hindu MahaSabha. “We welcome the court’s verdict and want the same rule to follow across the country.
The ban in BJP-ruled Karnataka had sparked protests from some Muslim students and parents, and counter-demonstrations by Hindu students. Reviews of the ban says it’s another way of marginalize the muslim community these accounts for about 13% of India’s 1.35 billion majority Hindus people.
Leaders of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a subsidiary of the RSS, the BJPs parent organization said they requested for a hijab to forbid in Modi’s home state of Gujarat and would soon write to the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. The BJP is in power in the two states.
“The hijab is not authorised in the defense armed forces, police and government offices, so why the insistence on hijab in schools and colleges?” said VHP’s Gujarat secretary, Ashok Raval. “It’s an attempt to increase communal tensions.”
Gujarat Minister of Education, Jitu Vaghani declined for comment. A state minister and a bureaucrat, speaking on state of anonymity, said there were no immediate plans to ban the hijab in schools.
Officials in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP retained control in recent national elections, declined for comment say a decision will only be taken by the next the administration which should to be in place in days.
Ayesha Hajeera Almas- who had challenged Karnataka’s ban in court and now plans to approach the country highest court to overturn the ban – said there was a real fear that the hijab the ban will now disappear national.
On 18-year-old said she had not been to school since late December after authorities banned Muslim girls wearing the hijab even before the statewide ban in at the beginning of February.
“More and more, we have the impression of living in an India where its citizens are not treated equally,” Almas said from Karnataka district of Udupi, from where the protests started.
“I fight for myself, fighter for my sisters, fight for my religion. I’m afraid there is changes like this in The whole country. But I hope that won’t happen.”
