A day after a Catholic nun in Thiruvananthapuram was denied permission to write the All India Pre-Medical Entrance Test (AIPMT) after she refused to remove her head-veil and Holy Cross, several political parties and the Catholic Church on Sunday came out against the CBSE’s norm that disallowed headscarf.
State Congress president VM Sudheeran termed as unfortunate the CBSE’s refusal to allow the nun to write the examination saying that the board should not have taken steps that could hurt the religious sentiments of candidates. “The onus is on the Government to see such things do not happen,” Sudheeran said in a statement. ET Muhammad Basheer MP, national secretary of the Muslim league, second biggest constituent of Kerala’s congress-led ruling UDF, said that the remark made by the apex court on headscarf was wrong and unacceptable.
“The issue entails matters of faith. The court has no right to interfere in matters of faith,” Bahseer said. A Muslim league leader said Basheer was totally justified in his protest against the remark the Supreme Court had made on Friday that removal of headscarf to appear for an examination for three or four hours would not make any difference to faith. “As per freedom of faith, the right to decide the dress one should wear rests with the individual,” Basheer said.