Says Kumar’s act of pulling the niqab deserves condemnation ‘within the strongest doable phrases’
Individuals throughout India and Pakistan have expressed robust outrage after an incident involving Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was seen pulling on the niqab of a Muslim medical scholar throughout a public perform earlier this week. The episode, which was captured on video and broadly circulated on social media, has sparked a heated debate about girls’s autonomy, spiritual freedom and the shrinking area for minorities in India.
The scholar, recognized as Nusrat Parveen, was receiving a certificates from the chief minister at an official occasion when Kumar gestured for her to take away her veil. Earlier than she may reply or comply, he appeared to achieve out and pull down her niqab himself. The act, considered by many as intrusive and humiliating, instantly drew condemnation from activists, politicians and public figures on each side of the border.
Amongst those that criticised Kumar is famend Indian lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar, who issued a press release on X (previously Twitter) calling the chief minister’s behaviour unacceptable. Akhtar, who has usually spoken critically about spiritual conservatism and has publicly opposed the follow of parda, made it clear that non-public beliefs don’t justify violating another person’s bodily autonomy.
“Although I’m basically against the idea of parda,” Akhtar wrote, “that doesn’t imply, by any stretch of the creativeness, that I can settle for what Mr Nitish Kumar did to a Muslim girl physician.” He added that Kumar’s conduct deserved condemnation “within the strongest doable phrases” and harassed that Parveen was owed an “unconditional apology” from the chief minister.
Akhtar’s remarks had been notable given his repute as a vocal critic of Pakistan and his long-held view that the partition of the subcontinent was a historic mistake. But, his intervention highlighted a broader concern shared by many commentators: that the difficulty at hand was not about ideology or spiritual debate, however about respect, consent and private dignity.
The incident has additionally drawn reactions from throughout Pakistan, the place celebrities and rights activists echoed comparable issues. Actor Sanam Jung questioned how anybody may justify such behaviour, asking pointedly the way it may ever be thought-about acceptable to tug at a girl’s niqab when she has chosen to cowl herself.
“This is not about opinions or arguments,” Jung mentioned in a press release. “It is about primary respect. Nobody has the appropriate to the touch a girl, management her physique or resolve how she ought to costume. Attempting to excuse this sort of behaviour is solely disgusting.”
Nonetheless, not everybody in India considered the matter with the identical seriousness. Some political figures sought to downplay the incident, arguing that it was being exaggerated. Sanjay Nishad, a minister within the Uttar Pradesh authorities, made remarks that additional infected public anger. Talking casually to reporters, Nishad prompt that Kumar was being unfairly focused.
“He’s a person too; they should not chase after him for this,” Nishad mentioned. He then added a remark that many discovered deeply troubling: “If that is the response to touching a niqab, what would have occurred if he had touched her some other place?”
When pressed to make clear, Nishad continued by trivialising the difficulty, suggesting that critics had been overreacting to what he framed as a minor act. His remarks had been broadly condemned for normalising inappropriate behaviour and for reinforcing a tradition that excuses harassment slightly than confronting it.
The backlash towards Nishad was swift, with many arguing that his feedback revealed a deeply entrenched misogyny inside political discourse. Critics identified that such statements not solely diminish the seriousness of consent but in addition embolden these in positions of energy to behave with out accountability.
Including one other dimension to the talk, Dewan Sachal, a Hindu and former provincial legislator from Sindh, weighed in by drawing a parallel with historical historical past. He recalled that, in response to the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the humiliation and harassment of a girl in the end led to a devastating conflict. Sachal argued that Kumar’s actions amounted to harassment and may carry authorized penalties, together with doable jail time.
As condemnation continues to mount towards each Kumar and Nishad, many observers argue that the incident is symptomatic of a broader downside. The convenience with which highly effective males felt entitled to the touch a girl with out her consent – and the readiness of others to defend or minimise that behaviour – speaks volumes in regards to the state of girls’s rights in India right now, notably for Muslim girls.
Critics additionally level to the rising trivialisation of minority spiritual practices as proof of a society changing into more and more illiberal. The Indian Structure enshrines secularism and multiculturalism as foundational rules, but incidents like this elevate troubling questions on how faithfully these beliefs are being upheld in follow.
For a lot of, the true concern lies past a single incident. It lies within the sluggish erosion of empathy, accountability and respect for distinction. Whereas there are nonetheless voices keen to problem such behaviour and communicate out towards injustice, they’re more and more examined by rising hostility and indifference.
The query, observers warn, will not be whether or not this incident will fade from public reminiscence, however whether or not Indian society can confront the attitudes that allowed it to occur within the first place – earlier than intolerance and entitlement additional unravel the social cloth.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, Minister for Energy Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari expressed Pakistan’s robust condemnation of the Bihar chief minister’s conduct. He mentioned the incident involving Dr Nusrat Parveen amounted to public humiliation and an unacceptable assault on a girl’s spiritual and private rights.
Leghari mentioned forcibly eradicating a girl’s veil was “deeply regrettable and unacceptable”, stressing that mocking or trivialising such an act solely uncovered a troubling sample of disregard for the rights of Muslim girls in India.
He expressed full solidarity with Dr Nusrat Parveen and mentioned the episode betrayed a wider erosion of spiritual freedoms that ought to concern the worldwide neighborhood.
