Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Wednesday evening officially dissociated itself from the 'ban on burqa' demand in the party's official mouthpieces earlier in the day, following a massive furore on the issue just five days before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins.
Sri Lanka had imposed a ban on burqa on Monday to help security forces identify people under an emergency law put in place after Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks in churches and hotels killed more than 250 people.
"We welcome this decision and demand Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows in Sri Lanka's footsteps and bans the burqa and niqab in India," an editorial in the Saamana newspaper reported.
However, party spokesperson for Shiv Sena, Neelam Gorhe, stressed that every policy decision is discussed in the meeting of top leaders or announced by party President Uddhav Thackeray.
"Today's editorial has neither been discussed nor been announced by Uddhavji and thus it may be a personal opinion of the editor on the current affairs in Sri Lanka, but is not endorsed by the party President or the party," Gorhe said in a categorical statement, signalling a dramatic turnaround on the issue.
Some Muslim leaders said a ban on the burqa would be an attack on civil liberties, and the demand was being made now to whip up controversy during the general election. About 14 percent of India's 1.3 billion people are Muslim.
Liberal Muslim women, however, see the burqa and the niqab as part of a culture that suppresses women's freedom.
Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, who lives in India, said she supported the ban on the burqa, but not because she thought it would stop terrorism.
"People are saying banning the burqa won't stop terrorism," Nasreen wrote on Twitter. "I agree, it won't stop terrorism but it will definitely stop women from being faceless zombies." Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh because of hostility from conservatives in response to her criticism of militant Islam.
Strong editorials in the Shiv Sena's daily mouthpieces, Saamana and Dopahar Ka Saamana, had called for a ban on burqa like the measure being mulled by the Sri Lankan government in the wake of the Easter terror strikes which claimed over 250 lives.
The dailies suggest that the burqa had nothing to do with Islam and Indian Muslim women who wore it were only following the tradition of the Arab world, where women wear it outside to protect themselves from the sun. A burqa is a loose all-enveloping garment worn by some Muslim women when they go outside. A niqab is a veil that covers the face, apart from the eyes.
