Sec 144 in Udupi ahead of hijab hearing

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said he was confident schools will function peacefully and his government’s priority was to ensure a conducive atmosphere for education, even as the controversy refused to die down, with an uneasy calm prevailing over the region.

The Udupi district administration on Sunday imposed prohibitory orders around all high schools in the district, days after Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai ordered the closure of all educational institutions amid the raging hijab row.

Women hold placards as they stage a protest in support of female Muslim students of Karnataka over 'hijab' issue, in Thane, Maharashtra, Sunday, February 13, 2022. (PTI Photo)

Chief minister Bommai said he was confident schools will function peacefully and his government’s priority was to ensure a conducive atmosphere for education, even as the controversy refused to die down, with an uneasy calm prevailing over the region.

A full bench of the Karnataka high court, comprising chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and justices Krishna S Dixit and JM Khazi, is slated to resume hearing a bunch of petitions on Monday. A single-judge bench of the HC referred the matter to the larger bench in view of the “enormous public importance of the questions involved” and issues of “constitutional guarantees to the religious minorities.”

According to the order, Section 144 will be in effect within a 200-metre radius around schools, assembly of five or more people around the school perimeter will not be allowed and processions or rallies of any kind, including sloganeering, will be prohibited.

When a group of students in an Udupi college was barred in December last year from entering classrooms and told not to wear the hijab, a headscarf used by Muslim women, they began camping outside the high school. A little over a month later, protests have spread to several other schools that have also enforced hijab bans, reinforced by a state government order on uniforms that bars students from wearing clothes that could disturb “equality, integrity and public order”.

Amid protests by the Muslim students, a group of Hindu students started sporting saffron scarves and headgear last week, leading to clashes between the opposing factions with incidents of stone pelting and police resorting to a baton charge.

Speaking to reporters in Haveri, Bommai on Sunday said: “High schools up to Class 10 will reopen tomorrow (Monday)… all districts have been asked to hold peace meetings involving parents and teachers at schools aimed at maintaining cordial atmosphere. I’m confident that schools will function peacefully.”

A decision on reopening pre-university and degree colleges will be taken after assessing the situation, the CM added.

As protests against the prohibition of girls wearing the hijab entering classes and by Hindu groups against the Muslim students intensified, the state government declared a closure of high schools and colleges in the state for three days starting February 9.

On Friday, the government said that universities under the department of higher education and colleges under the department of collegiate and technical education (DCTE) will remain closed till February 16.

With reports of foreign involvement in the controversy doing the rounds on social media, Bommai said, “Various kinds of news are being spread on the Hijab issue in social media. Police officials are monitoring it. Normalcy should be restored in schools and colleges.”

“What is before me, and my first duty is that schools and colleges should return to normal functioning, and students should study in a peaceful and cordial atmosphere and prepare for exams that are likely by March-April,” he added.

The chief minister’s comments have come even as a three-judge bench of the Karnataka high court is scheduled to resume a hearing on a bunch of petitions filed by various stakeholders on the issue on Monday. In an interim order on Friday, the HC restrained all students “regardless of their religion or faith” from wearing any kind of religious insignia to campuses.

Several petitions were also filed in the Supreme Court which declined to give an urgent hearing in the matter.

At a meeting with various stakeholders, chaired by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Udupi MLA Raghupati Bhat, the district administration said hijab will be allowed inside classrooms in institutions that do not have a prescribed dress code or allowed the headscarves before the controversy erupted.

“Wherever there was no uniform, we will continue the same practice which was there from before until the court order. Wherever there was a uniform, it will be according to the court because the court order is about the uniform and where it was a practice from before,” Bhat said.

Bhat has also demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA)-led probe into the protests alleging that it was an international conspiracy.

“I have demanded the NIA probe as it is an international conspiracy. No Muslim country is against us except Pakistan. Hijab can’t be banned in Udupi. It is their religious right but in schools, the uniform should be followed,” said Bhat.

The controversy is also likely to affect the joint session of the state assembly which will begin from Monday. The principal opposition party, the Congress, is likely to corner the government on the issue which has already taken a political colour.

While the ruling BJP has maintained that the hijab, a religious symbol, should not be allowed in schools and called for a dress code, the opposition Congress has thrown its weight behind the Muslim students.

(With agency inputs)