Students wear saffron shawls amid row over Hijab in Karnataka

Bengaluru, Feb 05: Amid row over wearing Hijab in classrooms in some colleges in Karnataka, a group of students again marched to their college wearing saffron scarves.

Videos from Kundapur in the Udupi district show boys and girls wearing the saffron scarves over their college uniforms, They also raised slogans of "Jai Shri Ram (praise Lord Ram)" while going to college.

The Karnataka government had on Friday asked educational institutions to follow existing uniform related rules, until the High Court comes out with an order in this connection.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh aid, rules have been framed in 2013, 2018 on the basis of the Karnataka Education Act, according to which educational institutions and its SDMC (School Development and Monitoring Committee) have the rights to prescribe the uniform to its students.

The Karnataka High Court on February 8 will hear the petitions filed by five girls studying in a Government Pre-university College in Udupi, questioning hijab restriction in college.

There is an ongoing row over wearing hijab by some students at a government pre-university college at Udupi.

In another incident, Muslim girl students of the Kundapur PU college, who reached the institution wearing the hijab, were stopped at the gate by the principal.

A number of Hindu students, mostly boys, came to college wearing saffron shawls, as a counter to the Muslim girls wearing hijabs.