Battle Of Religious Identities Have Turned Into Hijab Vs Saffron Scarf In A Karnataka College
Days after a group of Muslim students were allegedly denied entry into class by the management a College in Karnataka has turned into a battleground for religious identities.
This after, a group of Hindu students who had earlier opposed the Muslim students wearing hijabs started wearing saffron scarfs and shawls to the college.
The management of the state-run Government Degree College in Balagadi of Chikkamagaluru District is now trying to de-escalate the situation and decided to allow everyone to wear whatever they wish to till January 10.
Management convening PTM
"We are convening a parent-teachers meeting which will also be attended by public representatives on January 10 to resolve the issue. The decision arrived at would be abiding on everyone," Ananth Murthy, principal of the college, told PTI. He said three years ago a decision was taken in a similar meeting and that was abided by everyone till now. "Everything was going smoothly but yesterday some students suddenly appeared in the class wearing scarves. They were objecting to the dress code of some students," Murthy added.?
The issue had escalated earlier this week after a group of students had complained that they were denied entry for wearing a hijab.
But according to others, the Muslim students had violated a three-year-old rule in the College, which had banned the wearing of hijab inside the campus.
They said that recently some Muslim students had started coming to the College wearing Hijabs.
Similar row three years ago
"Three years ago, a similar controversy had erupted in the college and it was decided that no one should come to the college wearing hijab but for the past few days some women are coming to the college wearing it. Hence, we decided to come to the college wearing saffron scarves," Vinay Koppa, a B Com second-year student alleged
He also claimed that upon their request the college administration had asked the Muslim women several times not to sport hijab on the campus but they did not budge. The student warned that if this issue was not addressed then they would intensify their agitation in the coming days.
This is the second such case being reported from Karnataka in recent days.
Earlier this week, five students from a government college in Udupi were prevented from entering the classroom wearing hijab.
"Everything was fine before we started wearing the hijab but now we are being discriminated in this manner," one of the students had alleged.
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