New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanaka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday supported the Karnataka college students who are banned from wearing the hijab in classrooms,tweeting that the choice of what clothes to wear was theirs alone, and that this right is protected by the Constitution.
“Whether it is a bikini, a ghoonghat, a pair of jeans, or a hijab, it is a woman’s right to decide what she wants to wear. This right is GUARANTEED by the Indian constitution. Stop harassing women,” Ms Gandhi Vadra tweeted with the hashtag #ladkihoonladsaktihoon.
#ladkihoonladsaktihoon is the Congress’ war cry for the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh Assembly election that begins tomorrow. The party has zeroed in on women’s rights and empowerment as one of the key issues ahead of the election, with Ms Gandhi Vadra leading that charge.
Last week Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also spoke out in support of students’ right to wear the hijab in classes, tweeting: “By letting students’ hijab come in the way of their education, we are robbing the future of the daughters of India. Ma Saraswati gives knowledge to all. She doesn’t differentiate.”
Shocking protests against college students’ right to wear a hijab in classrooms have erupted in several towns in Karnataka’s Udupi, Chikkamagaluru and Mandya districts over the past weeks.
The controversy erupted in December after six students at an Udupi college alleged they were stopped from wearing the hijab while in class. Their protests triggered a wave of counter-agitations led by mobs of students and others brandishing saffron scarves and shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
The protests have also triggered a political row with worrying communal overtones in the southern state and others; similar incidents have been reported from Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry.
Karnataka’s BJP government has been largely silent as it waits for a decision by the High Court on a petition by five women questioning the restrictions on wearing hijabs.
The court, which began hearing the matter yesterday, will resume arguments this afternoon.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai yesterday ordered all schools and colleges to close for three days.
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