Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday urged everyone to refrain from commenting on the ongoing hijab row, a day after one of his ministers bragged that the saffron flag would one day fly atop the Red Fort.

“Everyone has been saying whatever they have to say on this matter. From now on, stop commenting and wait for the court’s judgment. It is my view that it is better to refrain from making any comments that could hamper peace. Let’s wait for the court’s decision,” Bommai, a BJP leader, told reporters in Bangalore.

Karnataka High Court is hearing a case relating to the right to wear the hijab.

Minister for rural development and panchayati raj K.S. Eshwarappa had on Wednesday said the saffron flag would one day fly from the Red Fort, answering reporters’ queries on allegations that some students of a Shimoga college had removed the Tricolour to hoist the “bhagwa dhwaja” — the two-forked saffron flag that is a symbol of Hindutva — on Tuesday.

Six hijab-clad girls sing the invocation at an event in Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram where chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan (second from right) inaugurated 53 fully renovated government schools equipped with hi-tech classrooms for web-based learning. The girls in their school uniform and wearing the hijab stood with folded hands while singing the invocation thanking their parents and teachers. The Telegraph

“Today or tomorrow (a figurative speech that essentially means in the future), the saffron shawl will fly atop the Red Fort when Hindu dharma reigns in this country, I am not saying today,” Eshwarappa said, adding: “Today our Tricolour is our national flag. There is no doubt about that.”

State Congress president D.K. Shivakumar had alleged that some students connected to the BJP had brought down the Tricolour at the college when the state witnessed unprecedented protests and violence as students affiliated to the Sangh parivar declared a war against allowing Muslim girls to wear the hijab at educational institutions.

“Some anti-national elements allied with the BJP have brought down the national flag in a college in Shimoga. I urge everyone to post a photo of themselves with the national flag as a mark of protest,” Shivakumar had tweeted, posting a picture of himself holding the Tricolour.

Eshwarappa denied that the students of the college had removed the national flag.

“I thought only (leader of the Opposition) Siddaramaiah was capable of telling such lies. But Shivakumar is lying even more,” the BJP leader said on Wednesday.

Video clips circulating on social media show that the flag post was empty when the saffron flag was hoisted by a student who climbed it. Members of the NSUI, the campus arm of the Congress, on Wednesday unfurled the national flag on the same pole.

Chief minister Bommai reminded everyone that the petition filed by a student seeking her right to wear the hijab on campus had been referred to a larger bench of Karnataka High Court. “As you all know, the hijab matter has been referred to a three-member bench headed by the chief justice,” he said.

Asked about the allegations that some BJP members have been distributing saffron scarves to the anti-hijab protesters, Bommai said he was not willing to comment on them. “See, there have been allegations and counter-allegations from both sides. I will not comment on them. In fact, what I am saying is whatever has happened has happened. Now leave it since this will not bring us any good,” he said.

Shivakumar had alleged that a state minister’s son was among those who had brought 50 lakh saffron scarves and peta (headgear) from Surat in Gujarat ahead of the protests.

But Eshwarappa did not appear to heed his chief minister’s request and instead countered Shivakumar. “They (the saffron scarves) came from Sri Ram’s factory in Ayodhya and were brought to Karnataka by Hanuman transport,” the minister said.

“D.K. Shivakumar doesn’t know that saffron is in the hearts of crores of youths in Karnataka,“ Eshwarappa added.

He was not alone in making controversial comments on the hijab. Power minister V. Sunil Kumar had said the Congress would make the hijab “compulsory” if voted to power. “If voted to power, the Congress will make the hijab compulsory. They should come out of their communal mindset,” Kumar had said.

BJP national general secretary C.T. Ravi called the Congress a “tukde tukde gang leader”, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Tukde Tukde Gang Leader CONgress did not protest when its Dalit MLA’s house in Bengaluru was burnt down by violent Muslim mob. The same CONgress is protesting just because few ‘misguided students’ want to wear Hijab to College,” he tweeted.

A group had torched the house of Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy over a derogatory comment a relative had posted on Facebook in August 2020.