Hijab row simmers, colleges to open today

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

The hijab-saffron shawl row continued to affect academics at several schools across Karnataka with some students defying the interim orders of a three-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court for the second day on Tuesday and arriving at schools wearing the hijab. The bench had said that no student should attend classes wearing religious dress in an interim order issued on Friday.

Meanwhile, pre-university and degree colleges are set to resume classes on Wednesday and it remains to be seen if the hijab row will lead to more law and order problems at college campuses as it happened on Tuesday last.

In several schools, students even refused to write the SSLC preparatory examination contending that religion was more important than the exams and returned home. In Davangere, as many as 25 students resorted to a boycott when they were asked to remove the headscarf and attend classes. There was a wordy duel over wearing the hijab in Dodapa village in Bhadravathi taluk of Shivamogga district.

The students at several schools in Shivamogga stayed away from classes. At Karnataka Public School, B-H Road, the students in hijab and burqa refused to heed the school authorities’ appeal to respect the court order and walked out.

Though a few students decided to remove the headscarf and write examinations, other students came in their way and insisted that they should not write the exam without a headscarf. When the authorities refused to allow this, they too returned home.

In Kalaburagi too, several students refused to attend the SSLC preparatory examination with as many as many 80 students remaining absent since Monday. A few teachers came to school with the hijab but took classes after removing it before entering classrooms. In another school in the district, students attended classes removing the headscarf.

In Udupi, the epicentre of this row, classes were held peacefully without any disturbance for the second day on Tuesday. At a school in Bengaluru Rural district, police stopped hijab wearing teachers and students at the main gate. Condemning this, parents came to the school and took their children back home. Efforts made by SDMC members and teachers to convince them to attend classes failed to yield results. Some parents have urged the government to declare a holiday for all schools till the court delivers its verdict.

Meanwhile, the state government has asked the home department to step up security at all colleges in sensitive and hypersensitive places across the state as a precautionary measure.