Karnataka hijab row reaches Lok Sabha, opposition calls it end of India`s diversity

`Where are we taking our India? We cannot lose our diversity,` said TN Prathapan, Congress MP from Kerala in Lok Sabha on the Hijab comtroversy.

New Delhi: The echoes of Karnataka’s hijab row were heard in the parliament on Monday (February 7) after the opposition raised the issue in the Lok Sabha calling the recent developments a threat to India’s diversity.

“Where are we taking our India? We cannot lose our diversity. I request the education minister to intervene in this matter to ensure the constitutional rights of the students,” said TN Prathapan, Congress MP from Kerala in Lok Sabha.

Earlier in the day, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar accused BJP is trying to create unrest among the students and the public in Karnataka over the hijab issue.

Shivakumar was leading the party's membership drive in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Meanwhile, the hijab controversy that began in January at a Government PU College in Udupi where six students who attended classes wearing headscarves in violation of the stipulated dress code were sent out, has now reached the high court.

The Karnataka High Court will be hearing the petition over the 'hijab' row on Tuesday, as the controversial issue refuses to die down across the state.

On the other hand, male Hindu students at a Udupi college said, if the institution allows Muslim women to wear hijab, they will also come wearing a saffron shawl.

The state education board later issued a statement saying that a uniform dress code will be mandatory in all the private and public schools across Karnataka.

The ruling BJP's state president and Member of Parliament Nalin Kumar Kateel said the government will not allow hijab at educational institutions and will take strict measures to ensure that things go as per the rules of the school, and won't let things become "Taliban like".  

Meanwhile, After days of protest, the Government PU College administration on Monday allowed students wearing Hijab to enter the college campus in Kundapura area of Udupi district in Karnataka but denied them attendance in regular classrooms and were made to sit in separate classrooms, informed the administration.