Jawed Habib spitting issue: Karni Sena protests in Indore, BJP MLA calls for boycott in Bhopal

PTI, Jan 8, 2022, 8:28 PM IST

Bhopal/Indore: Activists of Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena on Saturday protested in Indore in Madhya Pradesh in front of outlets bearing the name of celebrity hairstylist Jawed Habib, who is in the midst of a controversy for spitting on the hair of a woman while conducting a grooming workshop in neighboring Uttar Pradesh.

The protesters, who also took out a motorcycle rally and gathered at outlets in Vijay Nagar and Tukoganj, threatened to ransack them.

Its district president Rishiraj Singh Sisodia told reporters Habib had insulted women by his act and promised to not let salons linked to him operate in Indore, which would ensure such people are hit financially.

The signboards bearing the name of Habib will be pulled down and destroyed and the administration can take ”whatever action it wants against us”, Sisodia said.

Tukoganj police station in-charge Kamlesh Sharma said no salon was vandalized during these protests.

Meanwhile, Amit Dantre, who runs a Jawed Habib branded salon under Tukoganj police station limits, said he was hurt by what the hairstylist had done and had decided to voluntarily give up branding rights to restart his establishment under a new name.

Rameshwar Sharma, the BJP MLA from Bhopal’s Huzur Assembly seat, during the day, addressed a gathering in Bairagarh and asked people to boycott the salons run in the name of Habib.

“How are people behaving? They spit in food and even on women’s hairs. Hindus should spit on those who believe in the culture of spitting. No one should go to outlets of those who spit. Instead, you should spit there,” Sharma said in his address.

A video had gone viral on social media of Habib spitting on the hair of a woman during a workshop in Muzzafarnagar in UP in January 3.

It was his way of demonstrating to participants that saliva was a substitute in case the water was scarce during a grooming session. Habib, after the woman filed a complaint, was booked under Section 355 (assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour person) of the Indian Penal Code and Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.