‘Congress communalising hijab-saffron shawl issue’

It is the Congress that is communalising the hijab-saffron shawl issue and not the BJP, State party vice-president B.Y. Vijayendra said in Belagavi on Tuesday. He was here to participate in a private function.

He denied suggestions that the BJP was communalising the issue of college uniform and said that it was the Congress that was communalising it.

Congress leaders are trying to gain political mileage out of it. The BJP, on the other hand, is trying to defuse the situation, he said.

He argued that uniform, by definition meant that all students had to wear it without modification or addition. The same rules apply to all and students should not be allowed to exhibit their religious signs through their uniforms, he said. He clarified that this rule applied to both Hindu and Muslim students.

He also said that the party was keeping a watch on the reported dissident activities of some BJP leaders in Belagavi.

State party president and MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and other senior leaders will resolve the differences between the Katti, Savadi and Jarkiholi groups, he said in response to a query.