Police stop protesters from entering Taj Mahal premises to chant 'Hanuman Chalisa'
Agra, Feb 15: The police here stopped members of right-wing outfits from entering the Taj Mahal premises and reciting 'Hanuman Chalisa' there as a mark of protest over the 'hijab' row that continued to simmer in Karnataka.
The protesters demanded that people be restrained from wearing dresses according to their faith in schools and colleges and sought strict action against those creating ruckus in the name of 'hijab'.
Circle officer, Sadar, Rajeev Kumar said the protesters were stopped from entering the Taj Mahal at Shilpgram parking.
"We have received a memorandum and forward it to the competent authority. The memorandum was presented about the ongoing 'hijab' protest," he said.
Asheesh Arya, the vice-president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Braj region said, "We had announced to chant 'Hanuman Chalisa' in the Taj Mahal as we consider it as 'Tejo Mahalay' (Shiva temple) while wearing saffron clothes. But the police stopped us."
"At various points in Agra, workers of VHP, Sewa Bharti and Durga Vahini were stopped by the police. I along with members of Sewa Bharti and Durga Vahini chanted 'Hanuman Chalisa' at Hariparwat police station after being detained by police," he told PTI.
Bhawna Sharma, from 'Sewa Bharti' said, "We wanted to chant 'Hanuman Chalisa' in the Taj Mahal premises peacefully. We told the police that we would buy tickets, but we were stopped ahead of the Taj Mahal at the parking."
"The aim was to register a protest against the ongoing 'hijab' row because schools have a dress code and every student should follow it," she added.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
