LUCKNOW, June 19: Muslim leaders demanded on Tuesday that India’s governing coalition replace its presidential nominee after she urged women to stop wearing veils, which she said were introduced to protect women from Muslim invaders centuries ago.

Several Muslim leaders called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to find a new candidate for the largely ceremonial post of president, accusing Pratibha Patil, a moderate Hindu, of insulting Islam.

The controversy over Ms Patil’s remarks erupted even before she filed her nomination for the presidential election, due in July. The cut-off for nominations is June 30.

Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said it was God who had asked women to wear a veil and that this was enshrined in the Holy Quran. The board is the highest body of Muslims in India on laws governing personal matters.

“Any statement against the veil means an opinion against Allah and the Quran which no Muslim will tolerate,” Rashid told The Associated Press.

Addressing a conference in the north-western city of Udaipur over the weekend, Ms Patil claimed women started using veils in India to save themselves from Mughal invaders in the 16th century, and that it was time to drop the practice, Indian newspapers reported.

“Now that women are progressing in every field, we should morally support and encourage them by leaving such practices behind,” said Ms Patil, 72, who is member of the Congress party and governor of Rajasthan.

Historians do not agree with Ms Patil. They say that the practice started much before the Mughal rule in the 16th century.

Satish Chandra, in his book “Medieval India”, said the practice of women using veils in the presence of outsiders became widespread in the 13th century.Orthodox Hindu women also cover their faces in the presence of elderly male members of the family, but their religion does not mandate the practice.

—AP