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Karnataka school suspends 58 for protesting hijab curbs, minister denies
The principal, addressing the students, had said that he had suspended all of them and they could not continue their protests on the campus.
At least 58 students at a pre-university college in Karnataka’s Shivamogga district were suspended after they refused to remove their hijab (headscarf) and staged a demonstration, students told reporters on Saturday.
The suspension, according to one of the students, took place on Friday when over 50 students of Karnataka Public School, a pre-university college at Shiralakoppa, staged a protest, demanding they should be allowed to attend classes wearing the hijab. However, addressing the students, the principal said they have been suspended and therefore could not continue their protests on campus.
The principal’s address to the students was recorded in video, which was widely circulated on social media on Saturday.
“Deputy SP, DDPI and SDMC had tried to convince you. But still, you have not listened to them. You have violated the rules. That’s why we are suspending you all from college for the time being. You can’t enter the premises since you are suspended,” the principal is heard saying in the purported video recorded on mobile.
HT cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video.
On Saturday, the students again came to the college, raised slogans and demanded their right to wear hijab. However, they were not let in.
“We came here but the principal told us that we have all been suspended and there is no need for us to come to the college. Even the police told us not to come to the college but we came here. Today, no one spoke to us,” one of the suspended students was quoted as saying by PTI.
However, state’s minister for youth empowerment and sports KC Narayana Gowda, who is also the minister in-charge of the district, on Saturday, said no student has been suspended for staging protests over the hijab issue.
Speaking to the media in Shivamogga, Gowda said the principal of Karnataka Public School had said the students could be suspended if they continue to protest on the campus. “Nobody has been suspended. The principal was trying to discipline students,” he said.
Meanwhile, educational institutions in many parts of the state on Saturday denied entry to students who arrived in hijabs, despite a government order on February 5, following the Karnataka high court’s interim order, restricted students from wearing hijab or saffron scarves inside classrooms.
In the SJVP College at Harihar in Davangere district, girls wearing hijab were denied entry. The students refused to go inside without the scarf, stressing that it was as important as education and they cannot give up their right.
In Vijay Paramedical College in Belagavi district, students complained to the reporters that a holiday was announced by the institution for an indefinite period due to the hijab issue.
“We will not sit without headscarves. Let the college realise how it affects our education. The principal is not listening to us,” a student told the media.
In Ballari, a group of girls were not allowed inside the Sarala Devi College, which has been witnessing protests from the day the controversy erupted and the government had ordered that no one should wear clothes that could disturb peace, harmony and, law and order.
The government college at Gangavathi in Koppal district too faced a similar situation where girls were not allowed inside the college. In Kudur village in Ramanagara district, some students staged a demonstration on the college ground after they were not allowed to enter the classrooms.
On Friday, an FIR was registered against a group of hijab-clad students for protesting outside a pre-university college in Tumakuru district. According to the FIR registered by the police, 10 to 15 unknown students have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 188 (disobedience) among others.
(With inputs from PTI)
