A couple of months ago, the prime time space of almost all the national news channels was occupied by a debate on the Karnataka hijab row. The matter, restricted to a single college in Udupi, later snowballed into a major controversy, with the matter landing at the doorsteps of the Karnataka High Court. Interestingly, the girls from the same college used to come to college wearing Hijab and would remove it before entering classrooms (till the autumn of last year). However, suddenly, those girls started wearing Hijab inside the classroom (end of last year) thereby disregarding and challenging the dress code of the college. Something must have happened in these couple of months, prompting the six girls to take an extreme stance.
Kerala Christians welcome ban
In a development which could have far-reaching impact on national politics, the Christian community has expressed its gratitude to the BJP-led Central Government for banning the dreaded Popular Front of India and eight associate organisations.
“Over the last five years, attacks on the Christian community by Islamic terrorists of the PFI have seen manifold increase. Thousands of Christian girls were kidnapped and converted to Islam by PFI activists as part of the Love Jihad. It is still continuing in Kerala and Tamil Nadu with the official patronage provided by the CPI(M), CPI and the DMK and the Periyarites,” said Kevin Peter, president, Christian Alliance for Social Action (CASA), an umbrella organisation of all Christian factions in India.
Kevin Peter pointed out the murder perpetrated by the PFI across India. “They do not believe in tolerance. Their motto itself is annihilation and elemination of rivals and people belonging to other religions,” he said. Kerala has seen more than 2,000 girls, that too professionally educated and qualified young girls, being kidnapped as part of Love Jihad and sold as sex slaves in IS-controlled West Asian countries along with Hindu girls. Though the Bishop of Pala, Mar Kallarangattu , spoke against Narco Jihadis and Love Jihadis, the Marxist-led Kerala Government slapped cases against him under various sections of the IPC allegedly for trying to create rift between various communities.
The Bishop of Pala spoke against Narco Jihadism after ascertaining details about the number of girls who have been admitted to various de-addiction centres run by the Church in Kerala. The Bishop, instead of going public, had alerted the parents of girls about the new threat while addressing a congregation in an age-old Church in Central Kerala. Kevin Peter pointed out the chopping of the hands of Prof T J Joseph by the terrorists of PFI. “Equally shocking were the murders of RSS and BJP leaders committed by the PFI across the State. All those who were executed by the professional murderers of PFI were innocent and peace-loving people who campaigned for communal harmony and peace,” he said.
The CASA president pointed out that former judge of the Supreme court Justice K T Thomas himself had said that the nation owed its existence to the country’s defence forces and the RSS. “It is ridiculous to listen to the CPI(M) and Congress leaders who have questioned the ban on PFI. “They want the RSS to be banned terming it as responsible for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. No courts in the country have blamed the RSS for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. The Congress remains mute when the DMK calls for the withdrawal of the ban on LTTE which assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister,” said Kevin Peter.
He also blamed the PFI and other Islamic forces for infiltrating the Church. “Certain spiritual leaders and nuns are dancing to the tunes of the Islamic terrorists because of blackmailing,” he said. The CASA president said the entire Christian community in the country would extend their support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the Central Government for the ban imposed on PFI and other organisations.
To understand the sudden change in stance of these girls and the reason behind a group of students approaching the High Court even at the cost of destroying their future, an insight is needed into modus operandi of the two organisations — Popular Front of India (PFI) and its student wing Campus Front of India (CFI). For novices, CFI members are under investigation by ED under money laundering case and by UP police under UAPA for inciting violence and terror at Hathras. CFI national General Secretary K A Rauf Sherif was earlier (2020) arrested by ED while trying to flee the country to avoid investigation under money laundering case. Apart from these cases, many other cases are lodged against CFI across the country related to violence, targeted killings, etc. There is no need to write much on PFI as a simple google search would reveal that the name of PFI is synonymous with terrorist camps, arms &explosives training, political killings, violence against the State, collaboration with international terrorist organisations etc. In this backdrop, let’s now understand the reason behind the Karnataka Hijab row.
In September 2021, CFI started its membership drive in colleges across Karnataka, including Government Women’s PU College, Udupi (the zero mile of the Hijab row). Just after one month of the membership drive, (analysis of the Twitter accounts show that all were activated after October 26) all four alleged victims of Hijab propaganda (of Udupi PU College) opened their accounts on Twitter and started to promote the agenda of CFI by taking part in hashtag Champions. This assumes significance as one of the alleged victims had told in an interview with BBC that they were not members of CFI and had contacted them only after the Hijab controversy. The Twitter timelines, however, tell otherwise. From the very first day since they came on Twitter, forwarding the CFI agenda was their only task. For those who want evidence, these girls participated in a hashtag campaign of CFI on November 1, 2021 against the new education policy.
They again participated in the next hashtag campaign by CFI on November 8, 2021 regarding Babri Masjid. Similar language and the common hashtag reveal the plot. Those who will paint it as a random tweet not associated with CFI, all these girls, including Zainab and Aliya, retweeted the tweet of CFO President M S Sajid on the same hashtag.
They again participated in the next Twitter campaign of CFI on November 11, 2021 related to Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad. Similar activism was repeated on November 19, 2021 in which they participated in another hashtag campaign #SaveKarnatakFromFascist run by CFI Twitter campaign on successive dates like November 21, 2021 (#AzaanEkBehtreenAwaaz), December 12, 2021 (#OneYearRaufInJail). Other tweets from the hashtag campaign also reek of their association with CFI and PFI. The language of the tweets clearly shows the extent of radicalisation prevalent amongst these girls even before the Hijab row started. If their association with PFI is so evident, then why are the girls hiding their past association with CFI?
Now, consider the Hijab row as a continuous process of the propaganda being used by CFI. The girls of Udupi Government College who were earlier attending classes by removing their Hijab (before entering the class) suddenly started spreading a conspiracy theory on December 31 (last year) with the help of Masood Manna, state committee member of CFI-Karnataka. On January 2 this year, these girls participated in a press conference along with CFI Karnataka leaders to take this propaganda to the next level. Instead of saying that they have been instructed to remove their Hijab before entering the classrooms only, they told the press that they have not been allowed to wear Hijab altogether! The rest of the propaganda work was then handled by the well-oiled machinery of CFI and PFI. PFI is known for organising dharnas and protests, especially in educational institutions as evident through the anti-CAA protests organised a couple of years ago at Jamia Millia Islamia, Osmania University etc. to further their narrow interest. After threatening the college administration through the press conference, these CFI-affiliated girls later started a dharna outside the college gate.
Numerous arguments have been presented supporting Hijab by quoting from Quran and Hadees. However, each and every time, the fact that girls were asked only to remove their Hijab before entering classrooms in a girl’s only college was omitted intentionally. People need to understand organisations like PFI’s anti-State past before jumping to conclusions. To avoid repeating incidents like Hijab row and maintain peaceful ambience of India, organisations like PFI must be checked and a nationwide ban is the first step towards achieving that goal.
