Hyderabad: To sport a beard, wear a turban, cover head or wear Hijab is part of the religious identity of minorities in India
The Karnataka High Court on Friday passed an interim order asking students not to wear any religious dress in educational institutions that have prescribed uniforms. When the high school classes resumed after a 5 days gap on Monday the students in several institutions across the state were asked to remove their headscarves to attend classes.
The Court interim order is an attempt to restore peace after the saffron cadres created a controversy by sporting saffron shawls and obstructing the Muslim girls from entering their colleges in Mandya and Udupi in Karnataka.
This interim order of the court can have serious implications for a secular country like India where the country’s constitution gives the right to citizens to practice their religion freely. To sport a beard, wear a turban, cover the head or wear Hijab is part of the religious identity of the minorities and no one can deny them to practice their religion. freely.
In India, the BJP is out to divide the nation into communal lines to reap electoral dividends. It’s using its affiliates saffron outfits in creating controversies. Its modus operandi is to create a competitive situation through its cadres like their sudden insistence to conduct bhajan and pooja on the same grounds where Muslims were allowed to offer Friday prayers in Gurugram coinciding with the prayer time.
In Karnataka, the Saffron men started sporting Saffron shawls and heckled Hijab wearing Muslim girls to create a competitive situation. The judiciary must have taken cognizance of this ploy in distinguishing between the aggrieved party and the troublemakers while delivering its interim order.
It is an irony of the sort that on one hand the BJP leaders blame women for not fully covering their bodies and encouraging crimes like rapes and on the other hand, they are objecting to the Muslim women fully covering their bodies.
Muslim Hijab, like Sikh Turban, is a piece of cloth to cover the hair. Both are an integral part of their religious identity. This is a Sabrimala like a situation where the SC had to review its verdict in response to the ruling Modi Government plea advising the Court to stay away from interfering in people’s religious practices.
The Hon’ble Court must have directed the Karnataka government to deal with the trouble makers rather than treating them at par with the Muslim girls who approached the Court for attending their classes with Hijab which is part of their religion. This precedent can encourage the saffron communalists to replicate Karnataka like situations elsewhere to disturb the peace of the country and as a consequence, the issue may snowball and the situation may go out of hand.
It is clear that the ruling BJP is bent on dividing the country on communal lines to perpetuate its rule. It is always in an election mode to focus on its divisive communal agenda rather than improving the country’s economic situation and creating jobs for the youth.
Some political analysts believe that, by turning the Hijab into a controversy, the BJP is trying to pave the way for introducing a unified civil code (UCC) in the country.
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