India’s cartoonists have been hard at work, trying to make sense of the ban on hijabs imposed by some junior colleges in Karnataka and the unrest that has followed.

On Wednesday, the Karnataka police banned gatherings and demonstrations within 200 meters of educational institutions for two weeks in an effort to control the unrest that had rippled through some campuses after managements banned Muslim women students from entering if they were wearing hijabs.

It wasn’t immediately clear why these junior colleges had chosen to impose this restriction, but the state government on February 5 backed them up with an order banning clothes that “disturb equality, integrity and public order”.

On Tuesday, after the police were called to control crowds of Hindu students at some campuses wearing saffron scarves and turbans to pressure more institutions to ban hijabs, the state government shut down all high schools and colleges for three days from Wednesday.

The irony of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government’s Beti Bechao, Beti Padhao campaign – save our daughters, educate them – to empower women by encouraging education did not go unnoticed by India’s cartoonists.

Sandeep Adhwaryu made a reference to the Sulli Deal app, which “auctioned” prominent Muslim women who have been critical of government policies.

The paradox of the demand that Muslim girls should stop wearing a garment that marks out their religion being made by supporters of a party whose chief minister in Uttar Pradesh who flaunts his Hindu monk’s robes did not go unremarked.

Sajith Kumar invoked Tagore’s famous poem.