Hubballi, February 03, 2022 (PPI-OT):Shri Ram Sena Chief Pramod Muthalik’s statement that students fighting for their rights to wear a hijab in the classroom showed their “terrorist mind-set” and they should be kicked out of the schools, has triggered a controversy in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Muthalik had made an Islamophobic statement that this “stubborn mind-set on wearing a hijab to the classroom will take students to “terrorism”. ‘Now, they start with the hijab, later they ask for burqa and afterwards they will demand namaz and mosque. Is this your religious centre or school’? Muthalik claimed.

He urged the Indian government not to allow any public debate or discourse on the issue. The students who are insisting on wearing a hijab should be issued transfer certificates and be kicked out. This mind-set is dangerous, Hindutva leader remarked. His event went on to ask students to go to Pakistan.

“You have freedom to wear clothes of your choice at home. But, once students enter the school premises, one has to abide by regulations. “Are you making India, a Pakistan or Afghanistan? If you demand a burqa or a hijab you can go to Pakistan,” he said.

The statements have stirred a controversy in the state which is already coping with the hijab row. The students agitating over wearing a hijab to class in Udupi Pre University College have approached the High Court seeking relief. The government has set up a committee to decide the issue. Until then the government has asked students not to wear a hijab. However, the students have defied the order and say that wearing a hijab is their constitutional right.

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