Internal Matter, Outsiders’ Remarks Not Welcome: MEA on Criticism Over Hijab Row

MEA said, "Outsiders have no right to comment on internal issues and matters relating to India's Constitution."

The row over hijab began in December 2021 when the principal of a government pre-university college in Udupi district in Karnataka stopped Muslim girls from entering the campus as they were wearing hijabs. Photo for representation only.

(Photo: Deeksha Malhotra/The Quint)

After criticism from several quarters of the world over India’s hijab row in Karnataka and its treatment of Muslims in the country, the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday, 17 February, said in a firm reminder, that the case is being heard by Karnataka High Court and that it is an internal matter of India and other countries have no right to comment on it.

Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson of the ministry, said in response to a question, "This is not a matter for the Ministry of External Affairs. Being an internal matter of India, any comment on it by an outsider or another country is not welcome.”

"We have a constitutional mechanism, judicial system, and democratic ethos. This gives us a framework to find solutions to such things. And this issue is sub-judice. Karnataka High Court is looking into it," he added.

"Outsiders have no right to comment on internal issues and matters relating to India's Constitution and its people," Bagchi said.

MEA's statements come after Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (IRF), Manchester United player Paul Labile Pogba, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, and several others have condemned the harassment of Muslim women.

This also comes a day after the women’s wing of the Islamic Constitutional Movement on Wednesday staged a protest outside Indian Embassy in solidarity with the Muslim women in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday continued to hear the petitions filed by Muslim girl students seeking protection of their right to wear hijab to classes, with Dr Vinod Kulkarni, party-in-person, asking the court to pass an interim order allowing Muslim girls to wear hijab to educational institutions at least on Friday, and during the holy month of Ramzan.