Several leaders of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Wednesday, 26 August launched a sharp attack on All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, accusing him of exploiting the Allahabad High Court's dress code ruling for electoral gain and injecting a 'communal flavour' into the broader debate on Muslim girls' education and progress.

Background: The Court Order and Owaisi's Remarks

The controversy follows the Allahabad High Court's dismissal of a petition filed by a minor student from a school in Prayagraj, who had sought permission to wear a hijab alongside the prescribed school uniform. The court observed that the petitioner had failed to produce any religious scripture or material establishing that wearing a scarf was an 'essential' practice of her faith. It also noted that photographs submitted in the case showed students from the same religious community attending school without scarves.

Addressing a Jalsa-e-Rahmatul-lil-Alameen gathering at the AIMIM headquarters in Darussalam on Tuesday, Owaisi declared, 'I disagree with this High Court judgment; I do not concur with it... Today's verdict violates Articles 25 and 19 of the Indian Constitution. Who are you to decide what is essential to Islam? Girls are wearing hijab on their heads, not on their minds. It is an attack on Islam.'

BJP Leaders Push Back

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ghulam Ali Khatana said that Islam itself enjoins respect for the laws of the land. 'Owaisi indulges in his own brand of vote-bank politics. Islam teaches that in whichever country you live, we should adapt to and respect its norms, laws, and identification regulations, and not create obstacles in their way,' Khatana said.

BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi went further, accusing Owaisi of attempting to confine Muslim girls' futures in what he described as a 'Taliban-like manner.' 'Some people are trying to lock up the education and progress of Muslim girls in a Taliban-like manner. And in the name of that, sometimes they try to create communal confusion over the hijab, and sometimes they try to add a communal flavour to their education and progress,' Naqvi said. He added that while the hijab is not banned in India — unlike in several other countries — every institution retains the right to enforce its own dress code.

Shiv Sena Weighs In

Shiv Sena spokesperson Shaina NC maintained that the ruling alliance holds no personal objection to the hijab but questioned whether it is a religious compulsion. 'Personally, we're not against wearing the hijab, but nowhere has it been mentioned that women in Islam must wear the hijab. But Asaduddin Owaisi obviously has his own agenda of vote bank politics. He can continue to argue till doomsday, but do understand that uniform discipline and equality represent secularism. When you have uniform instilled discipline, equality amongst children, it projects that the institutional identity is maintained,' she said.

Wider Context

The hijab-in-schools debate has recurred across Indian states since the Karnataka controversy of 2022, when the Karnataka High Court upheld a ban on hijabs in educational institutions — a ruling later challenged in the Supreme Court, which delivered a split verdict. The latest Allahabad High Court order adds a fresh chapter to an unresolved constitutional question about the intersection of institutional discipline and individual religious expression.

With assembly elections on the horizon in several states, critics argue that the hijab issue is being kept alive as much by political actors as by genuine legal or religious concern. The NDA's coordinated response on Wednesday signals an intent to frame Owaisi and the AIMIM as divisive forces ahead of those contests.