Hijab row spreads, 13 more districts hit

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Karnataka continued to face the heat of the hijab row on Monday with students ignoring the uniform dress code which was made mandatory by the state government and donning saffron shawls and the hijab (head scarf) while entering colleges on Monday.

In a disturbing development, the row, which was initially confined to one or two colleges in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, spread to 13 more districts.

All eyes are now on a writ petition filed by a group of students seeking permission to wear the head scarf which is likely to come up in the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday.

Notice has already been served to the government seeking its reply on the issue. In fact, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has already held a meeting with a group of legal experts, the Advocate General and Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C.Nagesh on the matter.

The hijab row has now spread to Bidar,Hassan, Vijayapura, Haveri, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Chikkamagaluru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Mysuru, Kodagu, Shivamo gg a, Bagalkot and Davangere where students in hijab and saffron shawls are on the confrontationist path.

In Udupi, the government college allowed students wearing the headscarf and saffron shawls inside the campus but they were made to sit in different classrooms. In another college, the management allowed students to attend classes only after removing the saffron shawls.