Bangalore: Karnataka BJP MLA Renukacharya has created a controversy, amid the ongoing Hijab Row. He says that rapes are increasing because of women’s clothing.
He made this comment referring to to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘bikini’ tweet, wherein she said: “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.”
To this, Renukacharya said: “It’s a low-level statement; to use a word like ‘bikini’. While studying in college, children should be fully clothed. Rapes today are increasing because of women’s clothes as men get provoked. It’s not right. Women have respect in our country.”
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.
Earlier in the day, Karnataka Energy minister Sunil Kumar said that if Congress comes to power, it will make a law asking Hindus to wear hijab.
The Karnataka hijab row started on January 1 after the management of a government pre-university college in the coastal town of Udupi in Karnataka barred six Muslim girls from attending classes for wearing hijab as the dress was against prescribed norms of the college.
The issue has now spiralled into a massive controversy with Hindu college students now sporting saffron scarves and waving saffron flags, demanding permission to display their religious attires and symbols if hijab is allowed in educational institutions.
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