Congress Demands Nitish Kumar’s Resignation After Hijab Controversy

NEW DELHI: At a graduation ceremony on Tuesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ripped off a woman doctor’s headscarf, drawing condemnation from the opposition.

A month after taking the oath of office as Bihar’s chief minister for the tenth time, Kumar was seen in a widely circulated videotape removing a woman’s headscarf from her face at a government function in Patna, raising fresh concerns about his mental health.

During the occasion on Monday, the 74-year-old lawmaker is seen in the video giving a certificate to an AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) physician and gesturing for her to take off her hijab.

For many, the incident is more about the normalization of disdain for Muslims in India than it is about a single man’s error of judgment.

The Congress party called Kumar’s behavior “vile” and demanded that he step down as chief minister, while the party of former chief minister Lalu Yadav expressed concern that this might be evidence of his declining mental health.

A video of Mr. Kumar garlanding a woman at a public gathering went viral weeks before the Bihar elections in November, which were won by the BJP and his JDU party. The chief minister chastised a JDU MP who attempted to prevent him from doing so.

Former Indian actor Zaira Wasim, infuriated, demanded an “unconditional apology” from Kumar. “A woman’s dignity and modesty are not props to toy with,” she said.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, a politician, stated that she wouldn’t be shocked if the woman claimed that “she is okay about it,” as she would still have to deal with the fallout.

Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, a member of the Lok Sabha, demanded an apology, calling the incident “deeply disturbing” and “indefensible.”

Additionally, he questioned the CM’s mental capacity and emphasized that he needs to resign from his position in light of this “erratic” behavior.

On X, fact-checker Mohammed Zubair wrote, “Even the Deputy CM tried to stop him.” If he were in his right mind, he wouldn’t have done this. There are other videos of him acting clumsily.

“Just because you’re the CM, it doesn’t mean you can pull off a woman’s hijab,” Iltija Mehbooba Mufti, the daughter of previous Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, told the Press Trust of India. You have no right to degrade Muslims because you are powerful. Please step down if you’re not feeling well.

Having personally known & admired Nitish ji I was shocked to see him pull down a young Muslim woman’s naqaab. Does one attribute it to old age or the normalisation of humiliating Muslims publicly. The fact that people around him watched this horrific incident unfold as some form… pic.twitter.com/1nXl1Xzg1l

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) December 16, 2025

“Does one attribute it to old age or the normalization of humiliating Muslims publicly?” her mother tweeted in response. Even more disturbing is the fact that many in his immediate vicinity witnessed this terrible event as a kind of amusement.

“Very sad to see this,” former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who is presently Telangana state’s Minister for Minority Welfare, told PTI. It is wrong for a head of state to act in this way, and nobody—not even those in such a position—should. It is strongly denounced since what has been done is a really horrible act. When the head acts in this manner, it sends the wrong message and encourages others in the state to follow suit. Therefore, such behavior should not be repeated, and proper action must be taken.