Hijab row: Schools reopen in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada

Classes conducted peacefully for grades 9 and 10

Classes for grades 9 and 10 in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts resumed on Monday after being shut from last Wednesday following untoward incidents in various parts of the state over the controversy over the hijab. The classes were conducted peacefully.

Deputy Commissioners of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi and city police commissioner in the commissionerate jurisdiction had imposed Section 144 Criminal Procedure Code within a 200-metre radius of the schools till February 19.

The high school section students arrived on Monday at the Government PU College in Udupi, where the hijab row had erupted during the last week of December.

The girl students who wore hijabs until the campus removed them before entering inside the classrooms, as they had done in the past.

MLA Raghupathi Bhat told reporters that all students in the high school section of Government PU College removed the hijab and entered the classrooms, thereby following the High Court’s interim order.

Meanwhile, Shilpa, a PU student from Government PU College in Udupi, arrived at the campus and handed over a memorandum to the college principal Rudre Gowda, urging him to reopen the college at the earliest.

In the memorandum, she along with other girl students had requested the principal to reopen the PU classes at the earliest as they are already missing the classes.

“We should not be punished for the adamant attitude of six girl students demanding hijab rights,” she said.

In Kundapura, high school students arrived at Government PU College. As hijab was previously permitted inside classrooms, students followed the same practice in accordance with the court’s order to maintain the status quo.

Additional Superintendent of Police Siddalingappa told reporters in Kundapura that an investigation is on to know who instigated the controversy in the campuses.

Police personnel were deployed in Udupi town and near the schools to maintain law and order and to avoid any untoward incident.

During the peace meeting held on Sunday, MLA Raghupathi Bhat in Udupi had clarified that students in schools where uniforms are not mandatory are allowed to wear headscarves or saffron stoles.

Udupi Tahsildar Pradeep Kurudekar, who visited a few schools, said Muslim students are adhering to the High Court’s interim order by removing hijabs before entering classes.

The Karnataka High Court had earlier directed the state government to reopen educational institutions and restrained all the students from wearing saffron stoles, scarves and any religious flags within the classroom.

The controversy over hijab which began at the Government PU College in Udupi, after six students refused to enter the classes without headscarves in the last week of December, spread to several colleges in Kundapura and later various parts of the state.

Dakshina Kannada DDPI Sudhakar said that classes were conducted as usual and students happily interacted and played with their fellow students.

No untoward incidents occurred in the district and none have submitted any complaints, he added.