Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said that instructions had been issued to lift the ban on hijab in government-run schools in the state.

The Congress leader disclosed the development while addressing a gathering after inaugurating two newly constructed police stations in Nanjangudu in Mysore district late on Friday.

“You can go around wearing a hijab. I have instructed officials to lift the hijab ban. Clothing and food is up to you. Why should I come in the way? You wear any clothing you want, you eat whatever you want. Why should I worry? I will eat what I want. It’s very simple,” the chief minister said to loud cheers.

“I wear dhoti and jubba (kurta). You wear your pants and shirt. What’s wrong in this? So don’t do politics for votes,” he added.

The Muslim headscarf was first banned in classrooms by the Government Pre-University College in Udupi in late December 2021. It eventually snowballed into a raging controversy after six Muslim girls opted to sit out of their classes in protest.

Repeated pleas from their parents and civil society fell on deaf ears as the college that offers higher secondary classes stuck to its decision. Many more government colleges and schools later replicated the model in the state, then ruled by the BJP, by barring students from wearing the hijab in classrooms.

It led to weeks of protests and counter-protests by Sangh Parivar organisations whose supporters turned up in saffron stoles to their classes.

The then BJP government helmed by Basavaraj Bommai had in February 2022 issued an order empowering the respective schools and their administration to decide on their uniforms, literally empowering them to ban the hijab.

The full bench of Karnataka High Court that heard a batch of petitions filed by aggrieved students for 11 consecutive days upheld the hijab ban by citing that the headscarf was not part of essential religious practice in Islam.

“We are of the considered opinion that the prescription of the school uniform is only a reasonable restriction constitutionally permissible which the students cannot object to,” the court had stated in its judgment.

The petitioners have since moved the Supreme Court where the matter is pending.