A female parliamentarian from the Indian ruling party - the Bharatiya Janata Party - has warned Muslim women against wearing hijabs in public, saying "it won't be tolerated".
Speaking during a public event, the BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur said: "In Hinduism, women are worshipped as goddesses. And the hijab should be worn when someone looks at you with an evil eye (or bad intention)... There is no need to wear a hijab in public because a Hindu man will not make you feel unsafe — he worships women".
"But if you're [Muslim women] feeling unsafe in your own home, you should definitely wear a hijab", the BJP politician, who is out on bail and is one of the key accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast terror case, added.
Her comments come amid an ongoing hijab controversy that began in the Udupi district of Karnataka, but is now spreading to different parts of the country.
The southern state of Karnataka is witnessing protests after some Muslim girls were banned from entering their classroom for wearing Muslim headscarves in Udupi.
Several politicians, meanwhile, have also drawn wide public attention after speaking out on the burning issue.
On 13 February, Congress lawmaker B. Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, in a bizarre remark claimed that women get raped in the country for not covering their faces or wearing a hijab.
Earlier, on 9 February, Karnataka BJP lawmaker M. Panchaksarya Renukacharya said that rape cases were on the rise as some attire worn by women provoke men.