Will try to win hearts of Muslim girl students, says Education Minister

Bengaluru: With the Karnataka High Court upholding the state government’s decision on restrictions on hijab inside classrooms, the the Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh on Tuesday said we will try to win the hearts of the ‘misguided’ Muslim girls who are against the move, and ‘bring them in the mainstream of education’.

He also said the shortcomings in the Karnataka Education Act-1983, especially the one related to the school uniform, will be rectified. “We will try to win the hearts of those girls who were ‘misguided’. We will try to bring them in the mainstream of education,” Nagesh told reporters.

He was reacting to the High Court order which said hijab (headscarf) was not an essential religious practice in Islam. “I have faith that the girls will come to the college and continue their education because the people of Karnataka neither speak against the court verdict nor go against it. I believe that these girls were misguided. They will be ‘all right’ in the coming days,” he added.

On the anomalies in the KEA-1983, he said, “Based on the judgment, the Karnataka government will try to rectify the certain confusions in the KEA.” According to him, school uniforms help in instilling patriotic feeling. “We all knew for many years that school Uniform helps in instilling patriotic feeling. We will make uniform mandatory to make students realise that they are the children of the nation,” Nagesh said.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra welcomed the High Court order. “Everyone should abide by the HC order. Maintaining the law and order is everyone’s responsibility,” he said. Jnanendra added that the police have taken all kinds of precautionary measures to avoid any untoward incident in the wake of the High Court order.-PTI