Hijab issue: Hindu outfits repeat conspiracy theory

Udupi: The Hindu outfit 'Hindu Jagarana Vedike' (HJV) has requested an NIA probe into the hijab issue, calling it an anti-national plot by "separatists." HJV state general secretary KT Ullas told reporters on Monday that individuals participating in the Hijab issue are not innocent and that it is being encouraged by persons who want communal clashes.

"The arrest of two people from a hijab protest site in Kundapur on February 4 for possessing lethal weapons demonstrates that there was a strategy to foment communal strife," he claimed. Ullas further claimed that six girls at Udupi's Women's Government PU College who are seeking to wear hijab are not innocent. He claims that if they are investigated, all the intrigues behind the hijab row will be revealed. He went on to say that PFI's student branch, CFI, is carrying out all of the actions that are destroying society's unity. He further stated that the hijab controversy is part of PFI's endeavour to convert India to an Islamic country. "The unity of India is under jeopardy." During the CAA protest, a similar 'fearful' situation was created. Fear-mongering efforts should be stopped in their tracks, he warned, or they will grow to the point of harming India. Uniform Civil Code should be introduced across the country to end all of these misunderstandings, he stated.

Meanwhile, CFI state president Athaulla Punjalkatte retaliated against Women's Government PU College, Udupi-CDC vice president Yashpal Suvarna for allegedly referring to six Muslim girls campaigning for the hijab as "terrorists."

"This is Yashpal's anti-national practise of degrading students," he remarked. Students, according to Athaulla, are demanding hijab because it is their fundamental right. A BJP leader's warped thinking, he remarked, is to label them as terrorists.