Karnataka hijab row: Congress demands closure of colleges to restore law and order

Taking to Twitter, DK Shivakumar, the state Congress president, said that situation has gone out of control and, therefore, teaching can be done online.

Amid escalating face-off in Karnataka between pro-hijab and anti-hijab students, the opposition Congress on Tuesday urged the state government to close affected institutes for a week to restore law and order.

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar. (HT Archives)

“The situation in some Karnataka educational institutions has gone so out of hand that in one case the National flag was replaced by a saffron flag. I think the affected institutions should be closed for a week to restore law and order. Teaching can continue online,” DK Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress president, posted on Twitter.

Shivakumar was referring to a video that has surfaced on Twitter, showing some saffron clad students placing a saffron flag on a pole meant for unfurling the national flag.

The politician's tweet came on a day when the Karnataka high court is hearing petitions filed by five female students of an Udupi-based government college, who, in December last year, started coming for classes wearing hijab, prompting protests from their classmates. In their petition, the students have argued that wearing the headscarf is their fundamental right.

Since then, protests have spread to many campuses across the state; students opposed to hijab countered by coming for classes wearing saffron scarves and shawls.

While the Congress has expressed solidarity with students who wish to wear hijab, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that a “uniform style of clothes has to be worn compulsorily.”