New Delhi: In a first, a private college in Mysuru city in Karnataka cancelled the uniform rule prescribed by the Karnataka High Court that bans hijabs, saffron shawls or any religious clothing inside classrooms, to allow the Muslim girls to attend classes wearing the headscarf.
According to a report on DNA, DK Srinivasa Murthy, DDPU said, "Four students refused to attend classes without the hijab and were protesting. Some organisations extended support to them. I visited the college today and held discussions with all. Meanwhile, the college announced that it is cancelling its uniform rule to allow the students to attend classes."
While the Mysuru college cancelled the uniform rule, the Karnataka police registered a complaint against 20 students from Empress College in Tumakuru, on charges of violating prohibitory orders issued by the high court.
The FIR comes after a warning issued by the Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, who said that there would be not be a ‘soft approach’ towards the protesting students anymore, and directed the police to take action against the violating students.
The FIR was registered after the principal of Empress College lodged a complaint at Tumakuru police station against the students flouting the prohibitory orders over the last two days.
It is to be noted that the protesting students created a ruckus outside the college seeking their right to attend classes wearing a hijab.
In another incident, fifty-eight students, who were suspended for wearing a hijab and staging protest outside their college in Shivamogga district of Karnataka on Friday, were not allowed to enter the institute on Saturday as they refused to shun the headscarf.
The hijab row, that flared up about a fortnight back, shows no signs of abating as protesting girl students continue to come to the educational institutes across the state donning a headscarf.
The ongoing controversy can be traced back to January 1, when six girl students of a college in Udupi, attended a press conference held by Campus Front of India, protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into the classroom for wearing hijab.
This was four days after they had sought permission from the college principal to let then attend classes wearing hijabs, that was not allowed. Till then, they used to wear the headscarf to the campus and removed it before entering the classroom, the college principal Rudre Gowda had said.
According to Gowda, the college had no such rule on hijab-wearing since no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the request had the backing of outside forces, the principal said.