But it is not heels which spell the Karnataka Hijab row. It’s the face and the head; whether a Muslim girl student can decide what to wear and what not to wear in school/college, the dress code be damned? The Karnataka Education Act says they cannot, but the Karnataka High Court asked for the Quran to decide though the high court judge said he goes by the Constitution of India at all times.

The Muslim girl-students insist it’s their religion-dictated right to cover their heads with the hijab, which is why the court asked for the Quran. The college-girls take the cover of ‘secular India’ to impose their will on the dress code. True, from 1975 on, India has been secular, and the best thing about secularism is that it pampers some religions! At least that is how secularism works in India.

Not surprisingly, the hijab row is getting traction across the subcontinent. With the Pakistanis taking the balcony seats. And India is a divided nation notwithstanding Partition along religious lines. Being secular with the Muslims in the mix isn't a success formula. The all-pervasiveness of religion in the Muslim’s life doesn’t leave much room to maneuver. In Muslim countries there would not be a hijab-shawl row.

Unfortunately, secularism is India’s Achilles heel. Anything and everything goes in the name of secularism. But as long as only the minorities used secularism as a prop to press for their demands, things did not look dangerous. Not anymore. The saffron shawls as a pressure group are here to stay. The genie is out, and can never be bottled again. That is dangerous.

Even otherwise, allowing anything, whether the hijab or the saffron shawl, to invade the school/college space, was tantamount to playing with fire. The Karnataka High Court will be taking a decision which both parties will have to abide by. But the decision cannot be in favour of one party and not be opposed. The ‘shawls’ are not going to keep quiet, the 'hijab' will not go into hiding if either wins and one loses!

That being said, there is no question the hijab is “regressive”, and a symbol of patriarchy. It defies logic though that the same people who raised Cain when Sabarimala happened, labelling it patriarchy of the worst kind, are now allowing another symbol of patriarchy laissez faire as if patriarchy is tolerable if it’s of one religion and intolerable it is of another religion.

This kind of coloured differentiation should be dismissed outright. Journalist Shekhar Gupta says the hijab row has forced even progressives to line up and support the "regressive" ‘hijab’ culture. Gupta is now the target of leftwing trolls even as their rightwing counterparts are cracking jokes at his expense, calling him a hypocrite.

Among those who believe Shekhar Gupta does not make sense is another celeb journalist, Barkha Dutt, who had famously stood with Twitter’s Jack Dorsey with a placard screaming ‘Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy’. Today, Dutt is showing solidarity with the ‘hijab-girls’, and she is doing it with “famous Muslims” Shehla Rashid, Arfa Sherwaniand Rana Ayyub, who wouldn’t be caught dead with a hijab on.

The politicians and political parties are, of course, a divided lot being responsible for the division in the first place. The hijab row may not impact the five states’ elections much, but the Karnataka assembly elections are round the corner and the polarisation in the state has been accomplished without firing a gun, so to speak.

Above all, what greater impact than to leave open the possibility of raising a ruckus on a communal issue that has already tasted blood? Even if the Karnataka High Court puts a full-stop to the row, what’s the guarantee that political parties wouldn’t pick up from where they had let go.

How long will it take for somebody/anybody to raise an army of saffron shawls and how difficult will it be to line up a battalion of the ‘hijab’? Not very long or difficult is the answer. The apprehension is compounded by the fact that the ‘hijab’ and ‘shawl’ have come to stay as props to divide as and when required. They will be flaunted whenever there is a need to polarize. The damage to the core values of true secularism is already done.

In a similar situation, the Kerala High Court acted promptly, ruling in favour of the dress code. And Kerala was and is ruled by a non-BJP dispensation. Karnataka is a BJP-ruled state and the BJP is branded communal. Winning the next elections in Karnataka is paramount for both the BJP and the Congress. The Congress has always stood by the minorities, insisting that they should get support and protection from the majority.

That said, the hijab girls and the saffron shawls are both pawns in the larger political game. If the ABVP is helping consolidate Hindu votes for the BJP, the Campus Front of India is doing the same chore for the PFI and SDPI. And if there is political conspiracy afoot, there is a foot each in both camps. What rules the mind are the implications for India in the long term. Our neighbour is merrily tweeting that the Indian Muslim made a mistake when he and his hijab chose to remain in India! (IPA Service)