JU hijab row: WB Minorities Commission steps in over complaint

Kolkata, Dec 31 (PTI) The West Bengal Minorities Commission (WBMC) has initiated an inquiry into allegations that a hijab-wearing student of Jadavpur University (JU) was asked to remove her headscarf during a fifth-semester English examination on December 22 on suspicion of cheating.

The issue came to light after some girl students from the arts faculty, associated with the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), displayed a poster during the university’s convocation two days accusing a section of the English department faculty of 'Islamophobia'.

They alleged that the act amounted to profiling and violated the constitutional rights of their classmate.

After coming to know about the incident, a six-member WBMC team visited the campus on December 30 and held meetings with the vice-chancellor, registrar, and student representatives to gather details related to the complaint.

Commission chairman Imran Ahmed on Wednesday said forcing students to remove their hijabs is "completely wrong" and unacceptable.

"Such incidents appear to involve deliberate profiling and such actions have no place in an academic environment," he said.

Ahmed said till the internal probe by the university committee into the alleged incident is over, the head of the English department, Professor Saswati Halder, should stay away from the campus to ensure a fair and impartial probe.

While JU constituted a three-member fact-finding committee to probe the allegations, the panel has been asked to submit its report within a month.

The incident triggered protests by students, who accused the university of infringing upon their fundamental rights.

Halder, however, denied allegations of Islamophobia, maintaining that the action was taken due to suspected cheating during the examination and the girl student concerned was assisted by another classmate wearing a hood to check if she was having an earpod.

Halder also said two other hijab-wearing students including a differently abled person were not asked to remove their head scarves as their action did not raise the suspicion of invigilators.

She also said the girl who was asked to remove her hijab partially was taken to an adjacent empty room where her girl batchmate was only present and help her partially remove the head scarf.

Education minister Bratya Basu said the department has taken a serious view of the alleged incident and will take appropriate action after the report of the minority commission is at hand. PTI SUS MNB