Mangaluru: Pompei College, at Aikala, Mangaluru, announced that students must come to college in the prescribed uniform. This comes after pictures and videos of a section of students wearing saffron shawls on campus went viral on Wednesday. Purushothama KV, principal of the college, said that at the co-ordination committee meeting on Thursday, during which it was decided that neither headscarves (hijab) nor saffron shawls will be allowed on campus henceforth.
The meeting was attended by leaders of both communities (representatives from a mosque committee and BJP leaders), old students, members from the governing council, representatives from the joint director’s office, police department and panchayat. The decision of the governing council that met early in the day was conveyed to the members. Those who attended the meeting agreed with the college’s decision that only prescribed uniforms will be allowed.
The principal said that Muslim students had been wearing headscarves inside the classroom since five years, and nobody had raised an issue. However, on Tuesday about 34 students came with saffron shawls draped around their neck, without submitting any memorandum or request to the principal or the management. ‘When I asked them if there was any specific reason for them to come in shawls, like if they were going to Sabarimala, they said that if Muslim students are going to come in headscarves, they will come in saffron shawls’, he said. Following this, an emergency meeting of the governing council was held, and then a meeting of the stakeholders.
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Local organisations were also reportedly supporting the students. A Bajrang Dal leader had allegedly warned the college that Hindus should be allowed to wear saffron shawls, if Muslims are allowed to wear headscarves. The classes were conducted as usual with a section of students wearing saffron shawls and the Muslim girls headscarves. The college has around 335 students.
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A similar incident was reported in Chikkamagaluru after a section of students in a degree college in Koppa came to the campus wearing saffron shawls on Monday. On December 31, the government PU college for girls in Udupi was witness to a similar controversy after six II PU students, supported by the Campus Front of India, accused the principal of not allowing them to wear the hijab inside the classroom. They argued that when students from other religion are allowed to wear bindi and bangles, why can’t they wear the hijab.
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