THANE: Amid the 'hijab' controversy in neighbouring Karnataka, hundreds of women on Wednesday held a demonstration in Mumbra township of Maharashtra's Thane district in support of the Islamic headscarf for female Muslim students.
The protesters, who also included Hindu women, said 'hijab' was their "ornament".
Protests for and against the 'hijab' intensified in different parts of Karnataka and turned violent in some places, after the government there issued an order last week making uniforms prescribed by it or management of private institutions mandatory for its students at schools and pre-university colleges across the state.
Muslim as well as Hindu women in Mumbra, a Muslim-dominated township in Thane, held the protest at Retibunder area, carrying placards and banners in favour of hijab and condemning the BJP government in Karnataka for its decision.
The protesters shouted slogans of 'Allah-hu-Akbar' and 'Jai shri Ram'.
The protest was led by social activist Ruta Awhad.
The women shouted slogans like 'Hijab is our ornament', 'Let Karnataka government come to its senses', 'Don't divide people', among others.
Awhad criticised the Karnataka government for enforcing the dress code.
"Muslim female students have been wearing hijab since the last so many years. However, Sri Ram Sene (a right-wing Hindu organisation in Karnataka) has objected not only to wearing of 'hijab', but also jeans, skirts and T-shirts. It is trying to create a divide in the country. The Constitution gives freedom to everyone to practise their religion," she said.
Nearly 500 students of Kolkata's Aliah University on Wednesday took out a rally in Park Circus area, with many women wearing hijab, amid a row over sporting the headscarf in Karnataka.
The participants, carrying the national flag, travelled around Entally and Park Circus before returning to their campus.
"As citizens of India, we have the right to decide what we wear and the right to follow our own religious practises," read placards in Bengali, English and Hindi held by the students, referring to the controversial developments in the southern state over wearing hijab.
"Down with right-wing forces that want us to go back to the medieval ages," texts on some other posters read.
Incidents of stone-pelting and use of force by police were reported in Karnataka on Tuesday, as the hijab ban row escalated and protests by students spread to more colleges, prompting the state government to declare a three-day holiday for all educational institutions.
The hijab controversy first erupted in January at a government PU College in Udupi, where six students who attended classes wearing the headscarf in violation of the stipulated dress code were asked to leave the campus.
The row has spread to different parts of the state with Hindu students responding by turning up in saffron shawls.
It has also taken a political colour, as the ruling BJP has stood strongly in support of the uniform-related rules being enforced by educational institutions, calling the headscarf, a religious symbol, while the opposition Congress has come out in support of Muslim girls.
There was no untoward incident as the rally in Kolkata covered a distance of around 2 km, a police officer said.
"We have nothing to comment on developments taking place outside the campus," a varsity spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Wednesday claimed that the ongoing row over wearing of hijab in educational institutions in Karnataka is a conspiracy of Congress-led "tool kit gang" to push "separatist agenda" and create an atmosphere of "anarchy" across the country.
Slamming the Congress on the issue, the saffron group's joint general secretary Surendra Jain alleged that Popular Front of India (PFI) is also involved in the conspiracy and appealed to the Karnataka government to expose the culprits and ensure they get "strictest punishment".
"The row over hijab, which started from Udupi, Karnataka, has now taken a massive form in the country. It's no more just a controversy. It has become 'hijab jihad'. Fanatic elements going ahead with this separatist agenda. Tool-kit gang under the leadership of Congress has become active across the world to create an atmosphere of anarchy in the country under a conspiracy," Jain charged in a video message.
He, however, asserted a "vigilant" Hindu society and the Karnataka government will not alow the "jihadi fanatic elements" succeed in their agenda.
"The VHP appeals to Karnataka government to expose the conspiracy and ensure that strictest punishment is given to the culprits of such anti-national move. It should be stopped," Jain said.
The hijab controversy first erupted in January at a government PU College in Udupi, where six students who attended classes wearing headscarf in violation of the stipulated dress code were asked to leave the campus, has spread to different parts of the state with Hindu students too responding by turning up in saffron shawls.
Blaming the Congress for the row over the issue, the VHP leader hit out at the party's leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for her remarks that it is a woman's right to decide what she wants to wear, whether a bikini, a ghoonghat, a pair of jeans or a hijab.
"Has she (Priyanka Gandhi) lost her mental balance. You want to send girls to classrooms in bikini?" he asked.
He also slammed Congress's Karnataka chief D K Shivakumar, alleging that he tried to spread a wrong information on social media about hoisting of a saffron flag in Shivmogga.
"But Shivakumar tried to make a video viral on twitter alleging that saffron flag was hoisted, insulting the national flag," he said.
The VHP leader said the saffron flag was hoisted on a pole on which national flag was not flying and the police have also confirmed it, he said "You (Congress) have stooped down to such a low level in desperation of power.
People of the county will give you a befitting reply and would not let jihadi agenda succeed," he added.