Asaduddin Owaisi slams Allahabad HC ruling on hijab, calls it an attack on Islam

Mangalore Today News Network

Hyderabad, Aug 27, 2026: AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi described the Allahabad High Court’s ruling denying a Muslim student the right to wear a hijab to school as an “attack on Islam”. 

Speaking at a public meeting on the eve of Milad-un-Nabi in Hyderabad on Tuesday night, Owaisi asked, “Who are you to decide essentiality in Islam?” He said the court’s position was against Articles 25 and 19 of the Constitution and questioned whether a court should determine which practices are “essential” to a faith.

He also said the student was wearing the hijab on her head, not on her mind, and that uniformity is not the same as equality. Attempts to impose uniformity on religious communities, he said, should not be confused with equality. “Remember that uniformity is not equality,” he said, referring to the implementation of Uniform Civil Code measures in other states. He questioned why provisions based on Hindu personal laws, including those relating to marriage, succession and divorce, should be imposed on Muslims.

Owaisi also took issue with certain groups insisting on the full rendition of Vande Mataram, noting that Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose had all held the view that only the first two stanzas of the song should be recited.

“Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi wiser than Mahatma Gandhi, a greater patriot than Subhas Chandra Bose, or intellectually superior to Rabindranath Tagore? By taking a contrarian view, the BJP and Prime Minister Modi have insulted Gandhi, Tagore and Bose,” he said.