The incident of Karnataka’s brave Muslim student Muskan Khan who was hackled by extremist saffron-clad students has initiated another Hijab controversy.
The video of this 19-year-old brave girl on media is holding the viewpoints of the public, politicians, representatives of human rights, NGOs, etc. Their views are mostly consistent with personal choice regarding dress code, right of liberty and freedom, education, BJP’s increasing extremism, and hijab vs. anti-hijab slogan not only in India but worldwide.
Under the shade of this happening, it is important to locate two things mainly: first is the political interests of BJP, and second is to consider the number of basic human rights given by the Indian constitution and deepening grounds of BJP’s extremist Hindu Nationalism that is increasing the misery in the lives of Muslims living in India.
Karnataka being the strong and influential political hub of the BJP facilitates in terms of doing such experiments there. The nationalist air in this state by igniting such incidents against the Muslim community helped them to gain votes from Hindus to secure their political interests.
On the other hand, the list of articles that secures basic human rights includes Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which claims equality before the law for everyone living in the Indian territory. The violation of this article has been clearly observed in the ethnic cleansing of Muslims not in the current Modi regime but in previous governments as well. The other Article 15 prevents citizens from any kind of discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, and caste of citizens.
The present incident is clearly depicting gender-based violence (GBV) and the other parameters of this article are being openly violated in Kashmir and other Muslim states there. Also, the 21 of the constitution secures the right to life and personal liberty. Similarly, Article 25 ensures the freedom of conscience, free profession, practice, and propagation of religion to all citizens.
The controversial stance carried by the current Indian government suffocates its citizens in one way or the other. Its ideology is mainly a big hindrance to national development by blocking the way to education on the basis of the dressing choices of Indians. The Hijab controversy must come to an end and the rights of every community must be protected.
