foreign Ministry was responding to comments from some countries on the dress code in educational institutions in Karnataka.
An official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said, “The Karnataka High Court is conducting a judicial inquiry regarding the dress code in some educational institutions in Karnataka. Motivated comments are not welcome for our internal issues.” Arindam Bagchi said.
“Our constitutional framework, democratic ethos and politics are the contexts in which issues are considered, resolved,” it added.
The MEA’s response comes a day after the US Office of International Religious Freedom (IRF) Hijab Ban “violation of religious freedom and stigmatizing and marginalizing women and girls”.
“Religious freedom includes the ability to choose one’s religious dress. The Indian state of Karnataka should not dictate what religious clothing is allowed. Hijab restrictions in schools violate religious freedom and stigmatize and marginalize women and girls, US Ambassador-at-Large Hussein for IRF Rashad said in a tweet.
The Karnataka High Court has ruled in an interim order that all students, regardless of religion or belief, are “prohibited from wearing saffron shawls (saffron), scarves, hijabs, religious flags within classrooms”.
The petition filed by a student has sought the direction of the High Court as well as a stay on the proceedings before a three-judge bench.
The appeal states that the High Court has sought to dilute the fundamental right of Muslim student women by not allowing them to wear the hijab.
The High Court has posted the matter for Monday and also said that educational institutions can resume classes.
The controversy began in late December when some female students in hijab were denied admission to a government pre-university college in Udupi. As a counter, some Hindu students come wearing saffron scarves.
The controversy also spread to other educational institutions in different parts of the state and protests turned violent at some places earlier this week, following which the government on Tuesday declared a three-day holiday for the institutions.
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