Hijab ban to continue, expected better judgement: B C Nagesh on SC's hijab ban verdict

Karnataka School Education & Literacy Minister B C Nagesh said the ban on hijab would continue even as he said the government expected “a better judgement” from the Supreme Court on Thursday.

A two-judge bench of the top court pronounced a split verdict on the validity of hijab ban imposed by the Karnataka government in classrooms in schools and pre-university colleges.

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“The ban on hijab will continue. The Karnataka Education Act doesn’t permit any religious items inside classrooms. We’re very clear that no student can wear hijab inside the classroom,” Nagesh told reporters, adding that the Karnataka High Court verdict upholding the government’s order in uniforms is still valid.

“As a democratic government, we welcome the judgement we’ve received from the Supreme Court. But, we had expected a better judgement,” Nagesh said.

“Women across the world are demanding the right to not wear the hijab or burqa. We’re seeing this in countries like Iran, Iraq and Switzerland,” Nagesh said. “In light of this, I expected the Supreme Court to uphold the Karnataka High Court’s verdict. But I’m not disappointed. The Supreme Court is the Supreme Court. Anyone who believes in the democratic set-up has to accept it."

Nagesh further slammed the Congress for "appeasement" of Muslims. “Congress always fights elections not on development or people's issues,” he said. “They always want to fight on emotional issues, particularly concentrating on one religion that’s most emotional. They want their votes, which they’ve been doing since 1947,” he added.

Accusing the Congress of having introduced the now-repealed Article 370 to “polarise votes of one community”, Nagesh argued that there were many other “small minority communities” in India. “But, only one or two communities are considered as ‘minority’ and given special status,” he said, adding that some organisations are using the hijab issue to divide the society.