After 10 students of New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia were allegedly barred from participating in a camp organised by the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in Rohini for sporting beards, an official of the quasi-military organisation said the students were evicted on grounds of "rules" and not religion.
Students Were Debarred as Part of NCC Rules
Advocate Major Navdeep Singh, founding president of the Armed Forces Tribunal Bar Association, clarified on Twitter that the students would have been debarred even if they were Hindus.
Retired Lt General of the Indian Army, Syed Ata Hasnain, pointed out that rules of the NCC, which is framed akin to that of the three wings of the military, does not allow any of its cadets, except Sikhs, to keep a beard.
The 10 students had alleged they were only given notices for “indiscipline” by the authorities. After being evicted from the camp, the students camped outside the NCC camp in Rohini, and staged a protest against the “discrimination” at the varsity campus, where they also met the Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia.
Two other cadets from our team had gone for army attachment camps and other NCC camps, but nowhere were they stopped from sporting a beard. The authorities had also threatened us of police action if we did not leave from the ground that night itself. We were harassed for simply keeping beards. They did not even issue movement orders citing the real reason for doing so – religion.One of the debarred student to The Quint
Here is a video shared by Aqdas Sami, vice president of SYCC Jamia Milia Islamia, of the protest that was held on Monday, 25 December.
Row Over Beard in NCC Is an Old Affair
However, this is not the first time such an incident has come to light.
In 2013, a group of seven Muslim students from Al Ameen College in Bengaluru had approached the Karnataka High Court challenging the NCC’s decision to not allow them to write an exam because they sported beards. However, the High Court ruled in favour of the students but had withheld their results till the final judgement. The NCC, however, decided to release their result and issue them their certificate.
In 2015, the Andhra Pradesh Minorities Commission had issued a notice to the Director General of the NCC seeking clarification about a particular notice that was issued in 2013 by the DG’s office that had forbidden cadets, other than Sikhs, from growing beard, The Hindu reported. The circular had asked the Sikh cadets with long beard to tie the beard properly and had ordered all other cadets to be clean shaven.
Later, the commission had approached the Ministry of Defence to also exempt Muslims from compulsorily shaving their beards, but that matter is still being examined.
No Beard for Muslims in IAF: Supreme Court
In 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that in order to “maintain discipline,” Muslim personnel in the Indian Air Force could not keep their beard by citing religious reasons, reported The Indian Express.
The Defence Ministry’s policy on “hair, beard and wearing turbans” – as notified in 2003 – stated that except for Sikhs, who are allowed to keep untrimmed hair, well-maintained beard and don a turban, personnel from all other communities have to obtain permission to sport a beard.
“Only those Muslim personnel, who had kept beard along with moustache at the time of commissioning/ enrolment prior to 1 Jan 2002, would be allowed to keep beard and moustache. Muslims who have grown beard after joining service should shave off the beard. Under no circumstances, a Muslim person who had beard at the time of joining service before 1 Jan 2002 shall be allowed to maintain beard without moustache. Moustache would be a part of the beard,” the notification read.
However, the rules over hair and beard are not uniform across the army, navy and the air force, reported The Hindu. The army does allow non-Sikhs in certain regiments to grow a beard, while the Navy allows its officials to grow facial hair with permission and also allows exemption on medical grounds.
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