College students wear saffron scarves to protest against hijab in classroom

CHIKKAMAGALURU: The management of a state-run degree college in Karnataka's Koppa is in a fix after a section of students came to college wearing saffron scarves protesting against the Muslim women allegedly attending classes with hijab.

The Government Degree College in Balagadi, which had reportedly given in to the demand of the students with saffron scarves initially and asked women not to attend classes wearing hijab, has now decided to allow everyone to wear whatever they wish to till January 10.

"We are convening a parent-teachers meeting which will also be attended by public representatives on January 10 to resolve the issue. The decision arrived at would be a binding on everyone," Ananth Murthy, principal of the college said.

He said three years ago a decision was taken in a similar meeting and that was abided by everyone till now.

"Everything was going smoothly but yesterday some students suddenly appeared in the class wearing scarves. They were objecting to the dress code of some students," Murthy added.

A B. Com second-year student Vinay Koppa alleged that Muslim women were coming to the college wearing hijab.

"Three years ago, a similar controversy had erupted in the college and it was decided that no one should come to the college wearing hijab but for the past few days some women are coming to the college wearing it. Hence, we decided to come to the college wearing saffron scarves from yesterday," the student said.

He also claimed that upon their request the college administration had asked the Muslim women several times not to sport hijab in the campus but they did not budge.
The student warned that if this issue was not addressed then they would intensify their agitation in the coming days.