From Karnataka To Kashmir, How BJP Bats For And Against Hijab

The Bharatiya Janata Party's political stance about Hijab changes from Karnataka to Kashmir.

In Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party unit is accused of allegedly sharing the personal details of the girls from Udupi who had approached the Karnataka High Court against the ban on wearing hijabs in classrooms.

Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh gave a statement saying said students who are unwilling to adhere to the uniform dress code are at liberty to explore other options. "Just as rules are followed in the military, the same is to be done here (in educational institutions) as well. Options are open for those who are not willing to follow it, which they can make use of," Nagesh told reporters in Mysuru.

But in Kashmir, the party has a different take on Hijab.

It seeks punishment for those involved in the controversy. They say if Sikhs have turbans and everyone is comfortable with it, why anyone should have issues with Muslim girls in Hijab. The party is accusing them of disrupting the harmony in the country. It goes further. It says such incidents give nothing to the country except embarrassment.

But in Karnataka the party says Muslim students aren't interested in education, they can't tolerate the development of the country.

OBC Morcha General Secretary and Udupi College Development Committee Vice-president, Yashpal Suvarna alleged that protesting Muslim students are not interested in education and are against the development of the country.

"They [Muslim students] aren't interested in education, they can't tolerate the development of the country. They were against the New Education Policy. There are a lot of colleges, they can go there. Hindu Rashtra is our main agenda," Yashpal Suvarna said.

In Kashmir, however, some party leaders are invoking different religions to argue that Hijab is necessary, even burqa is not a problem. They even say Hijab is a fundamental right.

With her head covered in dupatta, BJP leader in J&K Darakhshan Andrabi says she condemns whatever happened in Karnataka. “Why should I condemn girls being in Hijab? I am always in Hijab myself. Hijab is not wrong. Even Mother Sita had duppata on her head. Even Mother Maryam had a dupatta on her head. It shouldn’t be turned into Hindu and Muslim issue,” she says

Andrabi is a member of the Central Waqaf Council and BJP’s National Executive Member.

“A girl in Hijab was walking and boys shouted Jai Shri Ram. Woh bachchon ka khel tha (That was child play). The party had nothing to do with it. There was no one from the party involved in it,” she says.

She argues if girls are in Hijab or burqa, they should be treated with dignity. “We should respect women whether they are in Hijab, ghoonghat, burqa or jeans. Every civilized society demands that the women should be accorded respect.”

BJP leader Hina Bhatt, who is also vice-chairperson of Khadi and Village Board, has something similar to say. She says there should be no imposition on what one should wear or not. “Let us leave to an individual what he wants to wear or not. It is an individual choice whether he wants to wear Hijab or not. I am against any imposition,” she says. Both Andrabi and Bhatt have displayed pictures on their Twitter handle showing them in Hijab while meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For BJP leader Engineer Ejaz Hussain, Hijab is a personal choice. Hussain, who is also National Vice President of BJYM, says, “Hijab is a personal choice and choice of every individual should be respected. There are thousands of religions in our nation and our nation is tolerant to all. We should respect the sentiments of Muslims and should give them an opportunity to choose whatever deemed fit for them.”

Another BJP leader Hilal Jan has gone further and condemned the attack on Hijab wearing students in Karnataka. In his statement, he termed the wearing of Hijab, as per the Islamic faith, as a fundamental right to practice essential religious practices. Jan, who is BJP’s chief spokesperson of the party's Minority Morcha, called for stringent punishment to the culprits involved in disrupting the harmony in the country.

"Culprits tried to breach the peaceful environment in the country by entering the premises of college campuses in Karnataka wearing saffron shawls and stopping Muslim women students from wearing Hijab.” He says such culprits should be booked under relevant laws for disturbing communal harmony in the region.

However, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti says the BJP wants to erase all 'symbols' of Muslims like the Hijab. She says the BJP wants to polarize elections in UP and is using the Hijab controversy accordingly. She says it is a conspiracy to keep Muslim women away from education so that they would stay at home. "Hijab, ghoonghat or dupatta are part of a culture. I don’t understand how much they want to divide the country. "

 "I fear BJP won't stop at Hijab. They will come for other symbols of Muslims and erase all. For Indian Muslims, it is not enough to be an Indian, they have to be BJP as well," Mehbooba says.