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It’s a ‘hate campaign’ against Muslims — how India’s Urdu press saw Karnataka’s hijab row

ThePrint’s round-up of how the Urdu media covered various news events through the week, and the editorial positions some of them took.

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New Delhi: For weeks, the protest by a handful of young Muslim students in Karnataka’s Udupi, demanding that they be allowed to wear hijab in classrooms, had made headlines only in the Urdu media. Now that those girls and their demands have grabbed national attention, reached the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court, and become a part of the country’s political discourse, the Hijab row and its repercussions have become the most important issue in the Urdu papers, often pushing even news of the five-state assembly elections off the front pages.

ThePrint brings you a roundup of this week’s news and opinions from the Urdu press.

Hijab row commands Pg 1 space

The news of the demand made by a handful of students in one educational institution in Udupi to be allowed to wear the hijab in class, which had been on the front pages of Urdu newspapers for several weeks, has now snowballed into a law and order crisis in Karnataka and a polarising issue nationally.

The issue continued on the front pages of Urdu newspapers the entire week, with every development from the protests to the harassment of a hijab-clad girl in Mandya, and the court battle on the issue making page one news.

In its 5 February edition, Siasat carried a photo from Kondapura in Karnataka, where boys were sitting on the streets in support of the female students’ demand to be allowed to attend school in hijab. On 7 February, Roznama Rashtriya Sahara carried on the front page Gulbarga (North) Congress MLA Kaneez Fatima’s challenge to the state government to try and stop her from wearing the hijab to the Karnataka Assembly.

On 6 February Siasat carried on the front page Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statement that the hijab row in Karnataka was tantamount to stopping girls from studying and is not acceptable. In its 9 February editorial the paper wrote that the “hate campaign” against Muslims was sometimes based on the food they eat, but has now expanded into what they should or should not wear, including the hijab. It highlighted the importance of not letting the atmosphere get vitiated in educational institutions.

In an editorial on 11 February, Inquilab wrote that Muskan Khan — the young woman who was accosted on her way to her college in Mandya by saffron-clad hooligans and responded by chanting “Allahu Akbar”, had won hearts. It also said that a non-issue has been allowed to assume gigantic proportions so as to make political hay and that is the reason why “no tweets have been made either against the hooligans who were disrupting the motto of ‘beti padhao’ or against state officials on whom rests the responsibility of ‘beti bachao’.”

In its page one lead story on 9 February, Siasat wrote “Perhaps BJP wishes to win UP elections on the hijab issue”. The paper claimed that wearing a hijab has never been an issue in India, or anywhere else in the world, in the 1,450 years that it has been in existence. It has become the focal point of political tensions only when there are political gains to be made from such provocation.

On 10 February, Roznama, while reporting the developments in the hijab controversy, also carried on the front page two statements — one by minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, alleging that the controversy is the handiwork of communal and criminal elements, and another by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who declared that nobody has the right to decide on behalf of a woman what she can or cannot wear.


Also read: Viral photos, bruised egos, radical student groups: Inside story of Karnataka’s hijab crisis


PM Modi and the ‘tukde tukde gang’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch to Muslim women on 10 February, as vast swathes of western Uttar Pradesh (which has a substantial Muslim population) voted for the new assembly, was carried on the front pages of both Siasat and Roznama, alongside stories of the ongoing hijab row.

On 7 February Roznama carried on the frontpage a story about minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi offering a chadar at Ajmer Sharif Darga on behalf of Prime Minister Modi. Modi’s speech in the Lok Sabha, where he had ripped apart the main opposition party Congress, calling it the head of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’, was on the frontpage of Inquilab a day later.

Roznama, in its 10 February editorial wondered why the “people in power” are so scared of the Congress, even years after its exit from the central government, that instead of answering questions raised by the opposition, they have converted the Parliament into a forum to express their “hatred” of the Congress. The paper asked why the Prime Minister is not as concerned about hunger, inflation and unemployment, as he is about the Congress party.

Lata Mangeshkar’s death & the SRK controversy

The death of Bollywood’s nightingale Lata Mangeshkar and the unseemly controversy involving actor Shah Rukh Khan at her funeral made front pages news of most Urdu newspapers.

On 7 February, the lead headline of Siasat was “Meri awaz hi pehchan hai, gar yaad rahe (my voice is my identity, if you choose to remember me)” — from one of the innumerable hits by the singer. Apart from the news about the death of the “melody queen”, Inquilab also carried a snippet on the front page about the accolades that poured in from world leaders for the late singer.

Referring to the unsavoury comments made by some BJP leaders about visuals of Shah Rukh Khan praying at Mangeshkar’s funeral, Roznama in an editorial titled “Spitting and blowing are two different things”, asked who would know India’s customs and traditions if Indians do not? The paper argued that it is only people who deny the “ganga jamuni tahzeeb (unity in diversity)” of this country, cannot differentiate between spitting and blowing, as no conscientious person can spit on somebody else and Shah Rukh being one did not do so either.

Round-up of assembly election news

The Congress announcement of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi as its chief ministerial face for the upcoming elections, was carried on the front page of both Inquilab and Siasat on 7 February.

On the same day Siasat also carried a statement made by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who alleged his party was being targeted because of their increasing support. On 6 February the Inquilab lead was about the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh manifesto. In its 7 February editorial Siasat rued that media has stopped questioning those in power.


Also read: ‘Want to feel safe without Z security too’: Owaisi explains why he rejected Modi govt’s request


 

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