The Congress speaks in many tongues.
In 2019, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said this about the tradition of ghoonghat or veil among some Hindu women: “Even today, village women are imprisoned by ghoonghat. What right does society have to treat women like this? Till the veil exists, women cannot progress.”
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Jaipur: Gaon mein aaj bhi ghoonghat hai, ek mahila ko ghoonghat mein qaid karne ka, ek samaj ko kya adhikaar hai? Jab tak ghoonghat rahega tab tak mahilayen aage nahi badh paengi, zamana gaya ghoonghat ka. pic.twitter.com/uLvCsnP0x4
— ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2019
Just over two years later, his boss and Congress dynast Rahul Gandhi robustly supports a handful of Karnataka Muslim girls protesting against their school’s decision to disallow hijab. Rahul implied in his tweet that any institution’s decision to ban the hijab is a setback to India’s future.
By letting students’ hijab come in the way of their education, we are robbing the future of the daughters of India.
Ma Saraswati gives knowledge to all. She doesn’t differentiate. #SaraswatiPuja
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 5, 2022
Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah would not be left behind either.
“Constitution has given the right to practice any religion which means one can wear any clothes according to their religion. Prohibiting 'Hijab' wearing students from entering school is a violation of fundamental rights,” he tweeted. “The main agenda of Sangha Parivar is to deny education to Muslim girls in the name of Hijab. @narendramodi speaks about Beti Bachao, Beti Padao. Is he not aware of this incident? @BJP4Karnataka & RSS is trying to create communal disharmony throughout the State in the name of Hijab. I urge @BSBommai to immediately put a brake to this & arrest those who instigate people.”
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor waded in as well. He said if Sikhs can wear turbans, Christians have their crucifix, Hindus put tilak, why should there be an objection to hijab.
It's been a strength of India that everyone is free to wear what they want. If the hijab is disallowed, what about the Sikh turban? The Hindu's forehead mark? The Christian's crucifix? This college is going down a slippery slope. Let the girls in. Let them study. Let THEM decide. https://t.co/X2HUIo5hiV
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 3, 2022
The Congress stand, other than smelling predictably of its pathological minoritism, is regressive and hypocritical. It also draws false equivalences.
Turban, crucifix or tilak is not imposed on men and women. These symbols are not used to treat women as sexual possessions of their male overlords.
Yes, the veil, still used among very few Hindu groups, is regressive. But then why cannot Congress call the hijab or burqa, used extensively across Islamic society, regressive?
And turban, crucifix or tilak does not hide one’s appearance, and are not potential threats to public order.
Article 25 of the Constitution, now being widely touted to justify hijab, clearly states that the freedom of religion is Article 25 is “subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions”. Educational institutions are free of have their uniform dress code.
In 2015, at least two petitions were filed before the Kerala High Court challenging the dress code for All India Pre-Medical Entrance. Students were asked to wear “light clothes with half sleeves not having big buttons, brooch/badge, flower, etc with salwar/trouser” and “slippers and not shoes”.
The Central Board of School Education (CBSE) argued that the rule was to ensure that candidates do not use unfair methods by concealing objects within clothes. The Kerala HC asked the CBSE to put in place extra measures for checking students who “intend to wear a dress according to their religious custom, but contrary to the dress code”.
“If the invigilator requires the headscarf or the full sleeve garments to be removed and examined, the petitioners shall also subject themselves to that,” the court ruled.
In the Amna Bint Basheer versus CBSE case of 2016, the Kerala HC did not quash the CBSE rule. It again urged CBSE to take “additional measures”.
These cases involve restrictions placed on the freedom of religion to ensure a fair examination. The CBSE cited a manpower shortage to check every candidate.
Then in 2018 came the Fathima Tasneem versus State of Kerala case. The father of two girls, twelve and eight, wanted his daughters to wear the headscarf as well as a full-sleeved shirt to their school run by the Congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate under CMI St Joseph Province. A single Bench of the Kerala HC ruled that collective rights of an institution was greater than individual rights of the petitioner.
So clearly, a legal case can be made against the insistence of the girls to wear hijab against the Udipi school’s dress code. Even Muslim-majority nations like Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon have outlawed the hijab and burqa in varying degrees. Egypt and Syria have banned the face veil in universities. A bill to ban the niqab set to be tabled in the Egyptian Parliament.
But India’s so-called liberals and the self-proclaimed liberal party, Congress, is out to turn the clock back, stifling voices in the community against oppressive traditions.
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February 07, 2022 at 09:22AM
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