Despite the interim order from the High Court of Karnataka that the student shall never be allowed wearing hijab or saffron shawls or any other religious attires inside the class rooms of colleges and schools and were shut last week after violent agitations over wearing of headscarf inside classrooms, when the schools and colleges reopened in Karnataka, there have been protests, chaos and unease continue to prevail as many of the Muslim students kept boycotting classes staging demonstrations near the schools and colleges.
Several SSLC students continue to boycott the preparatory examinations by staging protests in various high schools. Over 1,000 students boycotted schools and colleges in Udupi, Mysuru, Belagavi, Chickkamangaluru, Shivamogga, Mangaluru, Kodagu, Dharwad, Vijayapura and other districts of the state. In order to bring calm prohibitory orders have been clamped in and around educational institutions. Notably, six students of Government PU College for Girls in Udupi, where the row first erupted, have not attended regular classes since the last week of December, 2021, and are likely to attend classes after the high court\u2019s final verdict.
Former AG and senior advocate Prof. Ravivarma Kumar, appearing for Udupi College student before a bench of High Court argued that when wearing other religious symbols is being allowed, why is only hijab being disallowed. He pointed out that in our society, every college-going girl wears a dupatta or something to cover her head, whether she is a Hindu, Muslim or Christian or of any other religion. While arguing further he submitted that \u201cIf people wearing a turban can be in the army, then why can\u2019t a girl sporting a hijab to practice her religion attend classes? It is a draconian decision.\u201d In his argument he vociferously claimed that Muslim girls are least educated and least represented in classrooms and if they are shut out in this fashion, it will be a doomsday for their educational career.
According to him, the role of education is to promote plurality, heterogeneity and not to have uniformity and homogeneity and a classroom should be a reflection of diversity in the society. Substantiating further, he questioned that College Development Committees headed b y MLAs have no statutory source of power, Prof Kumar said they should not be allowed to exercise police powers vis-\u00e0-vis expulsion of students. A judicial note of the fact may be taken that the MLA, whoever he may be, will be representing a political party\/ideology. Can we entrust students\u2019 lives to a political party or ideology?\u201d he asked. According to him, an MLA will not be subordinate to the government and hence there is no accountability.
In the society, in the high court and in the legislative assembly on the 16th of February 2022 pandemonium prevailed. Rural Development minister KS Eshwarappa and the state Congress president DK Shivakumar were about to physically assault each other as the former purported statement that the \u2018bhawa dhwaj\u2019 (saffron frag) \u201cmay become the national flag in future\u201d. The house witnessed tense moments when opposition leader Siddaramaiah made a preliminary submission seeking to move an adjournment motion demanding dismissal and a sedition case against Eshwarappa for \u201cinsulting the tricolor\u201d. Clarifying his stance, while reply to a media query KS Eshwarappa said that \u201cThe tricolor is our national flag and we should respect it. The bhagwa (saffron) may fly at the Red Fort after 100 or 200 years or 500 years, who know.\u201d And
In conjunction to what KS Eshwarappa predicted a student protesting against girls wearing hijab in classrooms climbed up the flag post of the government First Grade College at Bapuji Nagar in Shivamogga city and hoisted the saffron flag. The flag post on the campus was meant for the national tricolor hoisted on the republic Day and Independence Day. Hundreds of students had gathered on the campus chanted \u201cjaisri ram\u201d. His identity is not disclosed and thus far we have not heard any arrest or action taken. Nowadays BJP leaders both at the Centre, minister (Centre and States) MPs, MLAs and cadres can say and do anything and get away, but when others say they are booked under sedition laws and stamped as anti-nationals.
We have two Indias \u2013 one for the rich and the other for the poor. Likewise, India can now comfortably be described as 1) Secular India and 2) Saffron India. On the one hand we have our national anthem and national flag, while on the other \u2018saffron flag\u2019 has been hoisted in place of national flag and a minister openly says that in due course of time \u2018saffron flag\u2019 would take over the present Tricolor. Increasingly India is being governed by caste and religion. In politics and governance, religion and caste are insulated and thus become inseparable. BJP governments at the Centre and in the states are couched with fundamentalism of religion.
The classic example that happened recently when PM Modi was in Hyderabad to unveil a 216-feet tall statue of Equality commemorating the 11rh-century Saint Ramanujacharya, who stood for equality at Tridandi Chinna Jeer Swamy\u2019s Ashram at Muchintal on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Prior to that he also participated in puja and other rituals as part of the ongoing events. On the forehead he had a big namam. PM Modi openly participates in poojas and other religious rituals \u2013 a new normal. Similarly, the other politicians participate in the rituals and apply religious symbols. Even in some of the nationalized banks, police stations and government schools we see the pictures of gods and goddesses and performing of poojas. In the minority institutions we see portrait of the founders, crucifix, statues and some faculty wearing religious attires.
Nowadays the so-called \u2018saffron-india (\u2018majoritarian)\u2019 do not respect mutual co-existence, diversity and inclusivity of the (Secular India) who keep bulldozing and heckling. We have been witnessing \u2018saffron india\u2019 imposing its views and openly defying the rule of law for which the ruling governments (Centre and majority states). Though religion being one\u2019s private domain, increasingly we see open display of those holding responsible political portfolios are coming out in the open with all kinds of attires.
In the foreseeable future \u2018saffron india\u2019 will come out openly as against the Christians and others as well \u2013 all in the name of \u2018one uniform\u2019. Let not the heads of Christian educational institutions keep imitating \u2018saffron indians\u2019 by not allowing Muslims wearing hijabs. Their next target is Christian institutions. This is the issue that the BJP wanted to slip through the educational institutions and in the process appropriate cultural identities and their ways of life. RSS-BJP\u2019s future lies in the efficacy of polluting the mindsets of the young millennials.
Further, RSS-BJP engages in polarization on religious lines. \u2018Saffron india\u2019 does not believe in the Constitution that came to light by hoisting its \u2018saffron india flag\u2019 replacing the national tri-colour flag. \u2018Saffron india\u2019 is soaked with bundle of contradictions. Questions loom at large are: What to do and how to do about: There should be two-way pronged approach that needs to be employed as against \u2018saffron indiawadis\u2019: One way is to allow them to say and to do whatever they want so that they would sink by their contradictions, while on the other, to expose their contradiction by all means.
Dr. I. John Mohan Razu
Professor of Social Ethics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite the interim order from the High Court of Karnataka that the student shall never be allowed wearing hijab or saffron shawls or any other religious attires inside the class rooms of colleges and schools and were shut last week after violent agitations over wearing of headscarf inside classrooms, when the schools and colleges reopened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}