Rabindranath Tagore was (and our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is) a Talibani. This is a natural corollary of the strange logic Justice Katju of the Supreme Court came up with last week. What he meant to say is that allowing a student to sport beard is tantamount to Talibanisation of the nation. The deplorable verdict came in rejection of a plea by a Muslim Student Mohd. Salim who wanted to sport a beard in a convent school of Madhya Pradesh. Justice Katju said, “Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa, can we allow it?” A judge must allow it because India is a secular country where no authority, be it a school or any other institution or office, is entitled to force an individual to dress against his or her will and beliefs. For it is the Constitutional right to ‘freely profess, practise and propagate’. Needless to add that, this decision is against the spirit of secularism and democracy.
Pointing out that Sikh community members were allowed to keep a beard and sport a turban, Salim alleged there was a clear discrimination on part of the school to force him to be clean shaven and this rule was violative of his fundamental rights. Regarding this Justice Katju has to say that beard is not an indispensable part of Islam. Well with due respect and honour I contend that after all it is not his conscience or will that will decide the status of beard in Islam. The least sincerity that could be expected of the bench was its seeking scholarly opinion on whether or not beard is an indispensable part of Islam instead of pronouncing this hasty judgement.
Khan Yasir
Hindu College
North Campus, New Delhi