\n<\/p>\n
A video showing a top minister pulling down the hijab of a Muslim woman during a government event has caused widespread outrage and condemnation across India.<\/p>\n
Nitish Kumar, chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, was seen removing the veil of the woman when she was being handed an appointment letter as doctor of alternative medicine at a ceremony in the capital Patna on Monday.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n In a video that soon went viral on social media, Kumar, holding an official document in hand and flanked by a few other officials, points to what the doctor was wearing and asks her to remove it.<\/p>\n Before she could react, Kumar stretches his hand and pulls her hijab down, exposing her face, as a minister standing next to him makes a feeble attempt to stop him while others present on stage laugh.<\/p>\n Kumar, 74, has been Bihar\u2019s chief minister for most of the past two decades. He is a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Last month, their alliance won the Bihar legislative assembly election, in which the BJP emerged as the single largest party for the first time.<\/p>\n The video was first posted on X by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a political party opposed to the Modi-Kumar coalition.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat has happened to Nitish ji [\u201cji\u201d is an honorific in Hindi]? Has his mental condition completely deteriorated, or has Nitish \u2018Babu\u2019 [another Hindi honorific] now become 100 percent Sanghi?\u201d the RJD asked in its post.<\/p>\n Sanghi refers to a person affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a 100-year-old secretive far-right organisation that aims to turn a constitutionally secular India into an ethnic Hindu state. Modi and most other BJP leaders are lifetime members of the RSS, which is the ideological fountainhead of what is referred to as the Sangh Parivar (or Sangh Family), with hundreds of Hindu organisations working under its umbrella.<\/p>\n The BJP and its allies have long campaigned against the use of hijab by Muslim women. In 2022, the then-BJP government in the southern state of Karnataka banned hijab in classrooms, triggering a huge protest by the Muslim community. Later that year, a two-judge Supreme Court bench delivered a split verdict in the case, which meant the debate and politics over hijab continued in the country of 200 million Muslims. Several Hindu groups have demanded a nationwide ban on hijab.<\/p>\n Nearly 18 percent of Bihar\u2019s 127 million residents are Muslim.<\/p>\n Opposition parties and Muslim groups have condemned Kumar\u2019s action and demanded his resignation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is Bihar\u2019s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. A female doctor had come to collect her appointment letter, and Nitish Kumar pulled off her hijab. A man occupying the highest position in Bihar is openly indulging in such a vile act. Think about it \u2013 how safe will women be in the state? Nitish Kumar should immediately resign for this disgusting behaviour,\u201d the main opposition Congress party posted on X.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, members of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), a political party representing Muslims and other minorities, held a protest in Mumbai and demanded that criminal charges be filed against Kumar.<\/p>\n \u201cA Muslim woman has been dishonoured,\u201d shouted a protesting woman as she was dragged away by a group of police officers, according to a report by the Press Trust of India news agency. \u201cNitish Kumar should resign,\u201d said another member there, wearing a hijab.<\/p>\n Zaira Wasim, a former actor from Indian-administered Kashmir, demanded an \u201cunconditional apology\u201d from Kumar. \u201cA woman\u2019s dignity and modesty are not props to toy with,\u201d she posted on X. \u201cPower does not grant permission to violate boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the foreign minister of neighbouring Pakistan spoke out, calling the incident \u201cshameful\u201d and \u201cextremely disturbing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch acts underscore the imperative to safeguard minority rights and to address the troubling rise of Islamophobia. Respect for women and religious beliefs must remain fundamental and non-negotiable principles in every society,\u201d Ishaq Dar posted on X on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Kumar has not yet responded to the criticism. On Thursday, his party, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), posted on X that the chief minister has always \u201csupported the minorities\u201d during his multiple tenures.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minorities are safe and secure in the Nitish government,\u201d the party wrote, without referring to Monday\u2019s incident.<\/p>\n In a statement emailed to Al Jazeera, Aakar Patel, India head of rights group Amnesty International, said Kumar\u2019s act was \u201can assault on this woman\u2019s dignity, autonomy, and identity\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a public official forcibly pulls down a woman\u2019s hijab, it sends a message to the general public that this behaviour is acceptable. No one has the right to police a woman\u2019s faith or clothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch actions deepen fear, normalise discrimination, and erode the very foundations of equality and freedom of religion. This violation demands unequivocal condemnation and accountability. Urgent steps must be taken to ensure that no woman is subjected to such degrading treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A video showing a top minister pulling down the hijab of a Muslim woman during a government event has caused widespread outrage and condemnation across India. Nitish Kumar, chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, was seen removing the veil of the woman when she was being handed an appointment letter as doctor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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