‘Big irony’, says CPI(M) on hijab ban, questions ‘Surya Namaskar’ programmes in colleges

The CPI(M) said it is a ”big irony” that the very department which has ordered that ‘hijabs’ cannot be worn in pre-university colleges is the same one which called for a week-long performance of ‘Surya Namaskar’ to commemorate the 75th year of Independence in colleges across Karnataka.

An editorial in party mouthpiece ”People’s Democracy” said the statements made by ministers, MPs and MLAs on the issue make it clear that Muslims are being ”targeted for their religious identity and will be treated as second-class citizens and denied the equal rights provided under the Constitution”.

”The hijab worn by Muslim girl students has been seized upon by the BJP and Hindutva forces to create another divisive and anti-Muslim polarisation in Karnataka… The BJP government acquiesced in the demand of the Hindutva outfits that girls wearing hijab should not be allowed to attend government schools and colleges.

”This is the latest move by the BJP state government against the minorities. In the name of not allowing any religious symbols in the dress of students, the right of Muslim girls to get an education is being denied,” the editorial said.

It further said the visuals of Muslim girls with hijabs being barred from entering campuses have brought out ”starkly the gross injustice” of preventing girls who aspire to study.

The hijab issue ”should not be seen in isolation from the overall context of what is happening in Karnataka”, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said. It said since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came back to power in Karnataka by toppling the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in 2019, it has gone about ”assiduously to impose the Hindutva agenda” on the state.

It adopted a stringent law against the slaughter of all forms of cattle in 2020, which was basically aimed against Muslims, many of whom are in the cattle trade and the selling of meat, the Left party said.

This, it alleged, was followed by the Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, which ”is targeting the Christian community and interfaith marriages”. ”On the ground, vigilantes who attack social mixing of young men and women of different faiths have become more brazen and grown in the coastal districts. It is a big irony that the very department which has ordered that hijabs cannot be worn in pre-university colleges is the very same department which called for a week-long performance of Surya Namaskar to commemorate the 75th year of Independence in colleges across the state,” it said.

It said the insistence of six girls to wear hijab to class in the pre-university college in Udupi was ”utilised” by the ABVP and Hindu Jagran Vedika to get some Hindu students to wear saffron scarves and protest. The same thing happened in two other colleges, the editorial alleged.

Accusing the Karnataka government of acting against the fundamental right of Muslim girls to education, the party asked if ”religious identity cannot be expressed in clothing in an educational institution, then would that mean that Sikh boys cannot be allowed to wear turbans to school?” ”Wearing a hijab for a Muslim girl or a turban for a Sikh boy would constitute an essential religious practice. Behind the move to deny hijab-wearing girls access to education is the effort in Karnataka to make Muslims second-class citizens. This is a matter of fundamental importance concerning the constitutional rights of a section of citizens,” it said.