Timely intervention of the police prevented escalation of an issue at a degree college in Sullia on Thursday. The issue was relating to a teacher reportedly asking five girls of a community to remove their headscarf during a photo session at the college on Wednesday.
The college photographed groups of students, including some with their headscarf, on Wednesday as being done annually.
The sessions went on smoothly. The issue cropped up only when taking the photograph of student volunteers of the Indian Red Cross unit in the college.
Sources said that a teacher insisted that five women student volunteers with headscarf to remove them stating that they would look better. But the five students objected to it and said that headscarf was not an issue in the earlier group photo sessions and they refused to be photographed.
Members of Campus Front of India who learnt about this staged a dharna in front of the college on Thursday.
The police, who intervened, held a meeting and resolved that no student would be asked to remove their headscarf against their will.
The police said that the lecturer told the meeting that she would never ask students to remove their headscarf. The protesters then ended their dharna.
Asked about the issue, Giridhar Gowda, Principal, Nehru Memorial College, said: “It is an internal matter of the college. Some outsiders questioned it. The issue has been resolved.” He refused to elaborate on the issue.
