Hyderabad: The Karnataka High Court’s verdict on hijab has set off a wide range of reactions, with some welcoming the judgement and others opposing it vehemently.
Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao said, “It is for people to decide what they want to wear. Some people wear shirts, some wear waistcoats, dhoti or sherwani. How is the government concerned with this? Why make it such a big issue that people fight against each other. Where are we heading for?”
Senior Congress leader and former minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir said that hijab should be a choice of Muslim women and it should not be insisted on by anyone. He said not only Muslims, women of other faiths in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and some tribes follow the hijab like traditions.
BJP youth leader and Mylardevpally corporator Thokala Srinivas Reddy welcomed the verdict. The court’s decision brought peace and equality in educational institutions, he said. Muslim women should take the High Court verdict in a positive way, he suggested and hoped that the student fraternity would concentrate on their studies instead of other practices.
The minority Muslim leaders in Andhra Pradesh disagreed with the verdict. Minority Hakkula Parirakshana Samithi state president Farooq Shibli said that disagreement with the judgment was a constitutional right and hoped that the petitioners would appeal to the Supreme Court.
Indian Union Muslim League AP (IUMLAP) state president and AP High Court advocate Basheer Ahmad said hijab was a headscarf a tradition which continued for centuries. He said wearing the headscarf tradition was practiced by people belonging to Hindu communities. He further stated that priests including seers also wore headscarf, Sikhs wore turban and Muslims, traditional topi (skullcap) which many Hindus also wore.
Former minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said the court or the Karnataka government were only advising the students to follow the uniform prescribed by the school. The students could wear hijab while entering the school but not in the classroom since all students were equal once they were in the class, he added.
Former Nellore district Congress president K. Dhanunjaya Reddy said there should not be any discretion when it came to school or college uniforms or systems devised by the education institutes. Going by the court verdict, no one was against hijab outside the classroom and everybody should follow the protocol with respect to dress code in the classrooms, Reddy added.
The official spokesperson of BJP, Warangal district A. Rakesh Reddy said in many Islamic countries, their government itself banned wearing a headscarf, hijab and said that it was not an essential religious practice. Actually, it was necessary that in all educational institutions, the students should have a sense of fraternity in classrooms without mixing religion or communalism. “The BJP is welcoming the verdict,” he said.
Jagital district unit president of AIMIM Younus Nadeem said that wearing of hijab is a culture which was followed by the girls and women of Muslim community for the past several years. It was the religious right provided by the Constitution of India to the people of Indian citizens irrespective of their caste, creed and religion.
Muslim Advocates Association (MAA) in Kakinada welcomed the verdict. MAA president Jawahar Ali said the judgement was in tune with the constitutional norms and Muslim girls and women should abide by the court verdict and should wear uniform of a particular educational institution, when they were studying there. If that was not acceptable, they should move to another institution, he said.