BJP gives ticket to leader who called hijab protesters ‘terrorists’

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

The Karnataka BJP, on April 11, released its long-pending candidate list for the upcoming Assembly election in the state. The list of candidates has not gone down well with its party workers and senior leaders over being denied tickets to contest the polls. While that was concern of politicians fighting for power, the announcement of Yashpal Suvarna being given a ticket to contest from Udupi has come as a shock to the public as the party dropped the sitting MLA Raghpati Bhat.

Suvarna is the vice president of the Development Committee of Udupi Government’s PU College, where the students began their protest against the hijab ban inside the institution. As soon as the protest spread across the other parts of the state, the ruling BJP government banned students from donning clothes, claiming that it “disturbs equality, integrity and public order”. During the protest, the candidate allegedly called the students terrorists for protesting against the hijab ban.

The nominated candidate was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of RSS, during his college days. He was also a member of Bajrang Dal, a Hindutva group, and was one of the accused of stripping and parading a man and his son, claiming they transported calves. Hijab ban The protest against the ban on the hijab began in January 2022 after the Udupi PUC allegedly stopped five Muslim girls from donning the hijab inside the campus.

As many as six Muslim girl students challenged the state government’s order stating that the clothes disturb equality, integrity and public order, only to be upheld by the Karnataka High Court, which also said wearing a hijab was not essential to Islam. The High Court’s order was challenged before the Supreme Court of India, in which a two-judge bench gave a split verdict in October. While the SC said it will sit on the case for a further course of action, it hasn’t to date.