Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s remark about revoking the hijab ban in educational institutions has triggered a political row, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh calling it the Congress’s conspiracy to “wipe out Sanatana Dharma” and “implement Sharia law”.
“There is a Congress party government in Karnataka and has lifted the ban on the hijab…this is not just revoking the ban on hijab but has instituted Sharia law in the state. If Rahul Gandhi and the INDI-Alliance (the opposition INDIA bloc) form a government in India, Islamic and Sharia law will be implemented,” Singh told reporters on Saturday.
The statements come a day after Siddaramaiah said that his government would roll back the ban on the hijab that his predecessor, the BJP’s Basavaraj Bommai, had instituted in February 2022.
Addressing reporters in Mysuru Friday night, the CM said, “Hijab…we will withdraw it (order banning it). There is no (ban on) hijab. You can wear a hijab now. I have asked that the order be withdrawn.”
Revoking the ban had been part of the Congress’s promises made ahead of this year’s Karnataka assembly elections but the decision assumes greater significance given next year’s general elections.
Giriraj Singh wasn’t the only BJP leader to criticise the decision. Although there’s no official order yet, the announcement alone has stoked a political maelstrom in Karnataka, where, according to 2011 census data, Muslims constitute 13 percent of the population.
In a post on X, R. Ashoka, the leader of the Opposition in Karnataka, said this was the Congress’s ploy to divert attention from more important issues. “Caste Census card failed. North-South card failed. Now Hijab is back,” he wrote.
Caste Census card failed.
North-South card failed.
Now Hijab is back!Having failed miserably in Karnataka to deliver on guarantees and governance, CM @siddaramaiah is now trying to rake up the Hijab issue to hide his govt's shortcomings.
When everything fails, resort to Divide…
— R. Ashoka (ಆರ್. ಅಶೋಕ) (@RAshokaBJP) December 23, 2023
B.Y. Vijayendra, the state BJP president and son of former CM B.S. Yeddiyurappa, also attacked the move, writing, “CM Siddaramaiah’s decision to withdraw the hijab ban in educational institutions raises concerns about the secular nature of our educational spaces.”
CM Siddaramaiah's decision to withdraw the hijab ban in educational institutions raises concerns about the secular nature of our educational spaces.
By allowing religious attire in educational institutions @siddaramaiah govt is promoting dividing young minds along religious…
— Vijayendra Yediyurappa (@BYVijayendra) December 22, 2023
On his part, Karnataka’s Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Madhu Bangarappa said Saturday that there would be further deliberations on the Hijab ban and that the issue should not be politicised.
“State education policy is inclusive of culture, studies, behaviour, technique, the way of examination…everything…it has to be inclusive of everything,” Bangarappa told news agency ANI.
Amid the row, Siddaramaiah said that he was only responding to a question and that his government was yet to take a call.
“We haven’t done it (revoking the hijab ban) yet. Someone asked me a question (about lifting the hijab ban). I replied that the government is considering revoking it,” he told reporters Saturday.
The 2022 ban on the hijab not only became a flashpoint in the state in the run-up to this year’s Karnataka assembly elections but also sparked debate and protests elsewhere in the country.
On 15 March — a month after the Basavaraj Bommai government’s ban order — a group of Muslim girls approached the Karnataka High Court challenging it. After the court upheld the ban, the petitioners approached the Supreme Court, which gave a split ruling and referred the case to a larger bench last October.
Also Read: More Muslim women are wearing hijab as selfcare in India’s shrinking public spaces
‘Conspiracy’
Soon after it stormed to power in the state in May, the Congress government promised to undo the “wrongs” committed by the BJP government. These “wrongs” pertain not only to the hijab order but also to the BJP government’s controversial anti-cow slaughter and anti-conversion laws.
But it wasn’t until Friday that the Siddaramaiah government appeared to take the first step towards implementing that promise.
Addressing reporters in Mysruru, the Karnataka CM said there should be no politics on issues like food and dressing habits. “Dress, eating habits…that is left to you, why should I interfere? Dress up and eat what you want. What is it to me? I will eat what I want and you do what you like,” he said.
Responding to the remarks, Giriraj Singh said, “Islamic law will slowly be implemented” wherever there is a Congress or INDIA bloc government.
“This is a conspiracy to wipe out Sanatana (Dharma). On one side, Muslims are trying to bring in Islamic law with halal certification, on the other side Congress has implemented Sharia law by revoking the ban on hijab,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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