Women without hijab risk rape in India comment intended for Muslim men: RSS leader

Karnataka RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat provoked a controversy when he claimed that Congress member B.Z. Zameer Ahmad Khan's remark that hijab will help prevent rape is directed at Muslim men.

"MLA Zameer has spoken about his community. Muslim women wear a burqa inside houses also fearing the action by the males in the family. In Arab countries, women wear burqas out of the fear of being raped. Likewise here in India also Muslim women clad in burqa get protection from their own community members," Bhat said.

He stated that wearing saffron shawls by Hindu students is just a reaction. "What has happened in our country is that Hindus are trampled upon so much that there is no reaction for action from them. I appreciate the boys who wore saffron shawls to schools and colleges. They are not trained by RSS, the students are expressing themselves by flaunting saffron shawls," he maintained.

Taking action in this regard is imperative, he opined. The government should not have declared holidays for schools and colleges after the hijab row surfaced.

Hindus will not go for action at any point of time, however, they will react. "You want them to not react also," he questioned. The High Court has given interim orders, in spite of the fact that the students are coming to schools with hijab. If there is an order in future by the Supreme Court also, they would wear a hijab, he said.

Bhat stated that saffron symbolizes service, sacrifice, valour and "our entire nation is saffron. There is an agenda of dividing this country with the hijab row. Even before local media could pick up the issue of protests over hijab, the Pakistani media and other international media have taken up this issue, he added.

The Congress party has also slammed Zameer for his statements. State Congress President D.K. Shivakumar said the party won't endorse his statement and urged him to take back his comments. Though initially Zameer refused to take back his statement, he later regretted what he had stated.