“NOBODY has a right to force a girl to wear or not to wear a headscarf. Let girls and their parents decide.” said Brinda Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member at Mangalore, Karnataka. She was addressing a well-attended ‘Harmony Convention’ (Souhardata Samavesha) on March 21 at Kudmal Rangarao Bhavan (Townhall) organised by CPI(M) state committee.
Brinda Karat expressed her sadness and anger at the condition of girls, who are breaking barriers to get education in Karnataka, but are being deprived of the universal right to education by a government order. She brought out the discriminatory nature of the order by informing that sikh boys wear turbans and girls wear headscarf of their choice in many parts of the country. She said it is an issue manufactured by the BJP government to divert attention away from the non-implementation of several promises made by it. She declared that CPI(M) opposes the judgment of Karnataka High Court upholding such an unconstitutional order. She demanded that Supreme Court should, sooner than later, redress the judgement of the High Court. She also said on the other hand, CPI(M) also opposes certain fundamentalist forces within Muslim Community like CFI, SDPI who are putting pressure on the girls to wear the headscarf.
Brinda Karat posed two questions – why after 75 years of freedom, a convention is required to preserve harmony, and who is causing disharmony – and tried to answer them in the address. She answered the questions – RSS/BJP and its ideology Hindutva is the root cause of disharmony. Both during the freedom struggle and in the 75 years of independence, they were opposed to the unity, and diversity of India. They were always opposed to the four principles – secularism, democracy, federalism, nation sovereignty – which represent the aspirations of Indian people in the freedom struggle. They were also opposed to these principles being enshrined in the constitution. Now in power they are trying to bulldoze these.
Referring to another creation of the BJP government causing disharmony, the ‘anti-conversion’ law, she termed it as ‘abomination of the constitution’. She said if Dr Ambedkar were alive today in Karnataka, he would be the first to be arrested under this law. This law while virtually barring voluntary conversion, also legitimises ‘coercive ghar vapasi’ ie, forced re-conversion to Hinduism.
Yadav Shetty, CPI(M) secretary of Dakshina Kannada (DK) district presided over the convention. Muneer Katipalla, Party secretariat member of DK district , introduced the theme of the convention. Balakrishna Shetty, Party secretary of Udupi district, K Neela, Party state secretariat member also addressed the convention. Suneel Bajal, Party secretariat member of DK District welcomed the gathering.
