A leader of India’s Samajwadi Party on Thursday filed a complaint against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for pulling down the hijab (veil) of a newly recruited Muslim doctor during an official event.
Political leaders and journalists slammed the Bihar CM after a video went viral, showing him removing the hijab of Nusrat Parveen at the CM’s secretariat, where appointment letters were being handed over to newly recruited doctors.
Samajwadi Party leader Sumaiya Rana filed a complaint at a police Station in Lucknow against Kumar and Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Sanjay Nishad, according to a report by the ANI.
Rana warned that the Bihar CM’s act set a dangerous precedent, saying that his behaviour meant he was “encouraging his other workers to engage in similar acts”.
The politician also assailed Nishad over his statement, in which he said Kumar had only touched the Muslim woman’s face.
Advocate Misham Zaidi, who accompanied Rana to the police station, stated that the politicians’ actions and subsequent remarks incited religious sentiments.
Zaidi sought the application of Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to Kumar for grabbing and pulling the hijab of the Muslim woman.
Section 354 of the IPC deals with assault or criminal force used against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty.
The incident comes amid an alarming rise in hate crimes against religious minorities in India during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Last month, a US report recommended designating India as a country of “special concern” due to religious prejudice and serious violations of religious freedom.
US Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its report, exposed religious discrimination in India and extremist policies of the RSS and the BJP’s Hindutva agenda.
The report revealed that Modi and the BJP had implemented discriminatory policies against minorities in line with the Hindutva ideology.
It added that the BJP, as the political wing of the RSS, promotes Hindu nationalism.
The RSS has been involved for decades in violent acts against minorities, particularly Muslims and Sikhs.
