The BJP and its Sangh Parivar cousins have condemned the Karnataka chief minister’s statement that he has directed officials to lift the hijab ban at state-run schools, where the headscarves are banned under a dress code enforced by the previous BJP administration.

Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah had taken everyone by surprise by
announcing on Friday that the government would lift the hijab ban. On Saturday, he clarified that the matter would be taken up for discussion.

“We are yet to lift the ban. Someone had asked me a question and I said the government proposes to withdraw the order. The government will discuss the matter,” he told reporters.

The BJP, which had used the hijab as one of its campaign planks for the May Assembly elections that it lost badly, slammed the decision as “appeasement politics”.

“At least the chief minister could have spared educational institutions from the
dirty politics,” state BJP president Vijayendra Yediyurappa said.

“Muslim children haven’t demanded (the right to wear the) hijab. But the chief minister himself said he would allow the hijab at schools. This is appeasement politics.”

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti leader Mohan Gowda asked whether the chief minister would allow others to wear saffron shawls: “Tomorrow, students will turn up in saffron shawls. Other communities could come wearing the dhoti. Will the government allow that?”

He accused the Congress government of “paving the way for religious strife in Karnataka” by planning to lift the hijab ban in classrooms.

Basavaraj Bommai, the former chief minister whose government had empowered schools to decide on their uniforms, allowing them to ban the hijab, stressed that there was no statewide ban on the headscarf.

“They (Muslim women) are allowed to wear the hijab wherever there is no dress code. They even wear it in our Vidhana Sabha (Assembly),” he said.

Bibi Muskaan, a college student from Mandya who had by default become a symbol of resistance against restrictions on the hijab, told a Kannada channel she would now return to college.

“So many girls have dropped out of school and college (because of the hijab ban at classrooms). Let them now return to their classes and complete their studies,” she said.

“I had a lot of opportunities (to study abroad) but I refused to go because I preferred to stay here and complete my studies. I nursed the hope that we would one day get our right back.”

Muskaan, a student of PES College of Science, Arts and Commerce in Mandya town, 100km from here, had shot into fame by taking on saffron-wearing students.

Sangh Parivar protesters had chased her into the college building, shouting “Jai Shri Ram”, as she arrived in her scooter wearing the headscarf. In a fit of anger, Muskaan had shouted back: “Allahu Akbar.”

The Government Pre-University College in Udupi had first banned the hijab from classrooms in late December 2021. This prompted six hijab-clad Muslim students to spend their time in college sitting in corridors and other spots.

Weeks of protests followed across the state as more government-run educational institutions banned the hijab. The then BJP government issued an order in February 2022 empowering educational institutions to decide on their uniforms, giving them a virtual go-ahead to ban the headscarf.

Karnataka High Court, hearing a batch of petitions from women Muslim students in March 2022, upheld the ban ruling the hijab was not part of essential religious practice in Islam. The matter is now before the Supreme Court.