A minister in Karnataka, BC Nagesh, claimed on Wednesday that the burqa-clad college student who was caught on camera on Tuesday standing up to a mob in saffron made the first move in her show of defiance, according to ndtv.com.
"They did not want to gherao the girl. but when she was shouting... when she was shouting Allah-hu-Akbar, there was not a single student around her. Why she provoked saying Allah-hu-Akbar in a college campus? Can't encourage "Allah-hu-Akbar' or 'Jai Shri Ram' on campus," Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh said. "No one can take law and order into their hands. The government will not spare any miscreant," the minister said.
Videos of the confrontation at the Mandya pre-University college, were widely shared yesterday amid the escalating row over the use of hijab in educational institutions.
In the videos, the young woman, identified later as Muskan, is seen parking her scooter and heading for classes when a group of men shout "Jai Shri Ram" and advance towards her, brandishing saffron scarves.
Without breaking her stride, she responds with "Allah-hu-Akbar!" raising her arm in the air. As the men rush towards her and follow her, she keeps walking, shouting "Allah-hu-Akbar!" Within minutes, college officials approach her and escort her away.
Muskan later told NDTV, "When I entered the college they were not allowing me just because I was wearing the burqa... They started shouting Jai Shri Ram. So I started screaming Allah hu Akbar".
"The principal and lecturers supported me and protected me," she added.
Earlier a single judge of the Karnataka High Court hearing the case related to the Hijab ban in school-college campuses referred the matter to the Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi on Wednesday with a view that the CJ may decide on constituting a larger bench to look into the case.
Justice Krishna S Dixit who was hearing since Tuesday a batch of petitions against Hijab ban in classrooms, maintained that these matters give rise to certain constitutional questions of seminal importance in view of certain aspects of personal law.
"In view of the enormity of questions of importance which were debated, the court is of the considered opinion that the Chief Justice should decide if a larger bench can be constituted in the subject matter," Justice Dixit said.
"The bench was also of the view that the interim prayers should also be placed before larger bench that may be constituted by Chief Justice Awasthi exercising his discretion," Justice Dixit noted in the order.
The Hijab row had spread to more colleges in Karnataka on Tuesday and taken violent turn in many campuses in different parts of the State, with spiralling protests for and against wearing of the headscarf by Muslim women students.
The petitions were filed by some Muslim girls studying in Government Pre-University colleges in Udupi district against a ban on their entry into classrooms with their hijabs on.