Protect girls’ rights, access to study: Opposition

by NTOI Web Desk

THE right to wear religious attire, the right to education and the right to equality — Opposition parties Saturday invoked these principles to criticise Karnataka colleges that have refused entry to students wearing the hijab.

While the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left parties, RJD, NCP and the BSP argued that the Constitution guarantees citizens the fundamental right to practise their religion, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi struck a different note.

She said that school is a place for education and students should be students, not “religious brand ambassadors.”

Speaking on the issue for the first time, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “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.”

His tweet Saturday – when Saraswati Puja was observed — appeared carefully crafted reflecting the anxiety in the Congress about a possible backlash.

Said his colleague Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge: “They have been going to schools wearing headscarves for decades. Nobody had any objection earlier. Now why are they objecting? They are doing this to divert attention. There are no jobs, they are not able to control inflation, they are using areas like Udupi and Mangalore as experiment grounds. If it’s a success, they can replicate it elsewhere in the state.”

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