Hijab row: Surjewala urges students not to fall prey to design of fanatics

PTI, Feb 10, 2022, 8:01 AM IST

Amid an ongoing row over Hijab in Karnataka colleges, Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala urged students not to fall prey to the design of fanatics and reject the agenda of hate.

In an open letter to students and parents, he said they should not let the self-serving rhetoric of the 1 per cent of fanatics on either side to sacrifice their future.

”Let’s reject this agenda of hate and continue being friends, holding hands and walking together for a better future,” he said in his letter, wishing a bright future for the students.

He alleged that mired by the stench of corruption and misgovernance, the BJP government and its vested interests are creating such unwarranted issues just to break the unity and spirit of Karnataka’s students and youth.

The Congress general secretary in-charge for Karnataka said these elements are not interested in the education, academic excellence and bright future of students but are only propping up their failed political interests.

”Let us all take a step towards educational excellence and progress of the state and the country while upholding unity in diversity,” he said. ”If the students and our children succumb to their nefarious design, your future will be jeopardised at the altar of their politics. Also, the freedom and equality that the Constitution gave us would be meaningless,” Surjewala said.

The Congress leader said in the land of Holy Shankaracharya, Ramanuja and Basavanna, Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Buddhist-Parsis have coexisted for thousands of years and have come to respect each other’s culture and practices with pride.

Surjewala said he is saying so from his long years of experience, both as a former youth and student activist who has also served as an administrator as member of senate, syndicate and academic council of Punjab University, one of India’s oldest universities.

He also said the student community has faced a serious setback in academics and acquiring gainful knowledge for last two years due to COVID-19 and tjhe BJP government’s sheer incompetence to meet the challenge.

He said at a time when students are busy preparing for exams, these lumpen elements want Karnataka’s future, the student community, to fight with each other on symbols and with stones and knives.

B R Ambedkar also said that education is the most powerful weapon and the lumpen elements behind this row want to end their academic life even before it begins. ”This is being done by a government infamous for ‘commission’, plagued by the ‘crypto currency xcandal’ reaching the highest echelons of power and an ongoing fratricidal war in the BJP to replace the CM and Cabinet ministers. ”As all else failed, they want to use our children to deflect attention away from their failures,” he alleged. Karnataka has been at the centre of the Hijab row and the matter is now before the state high court.