Mounting pressure to scrap the admission list for the first batch of students at the Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Devi Institute of Medical Excellence, around 60 organisations in Jammu have come together under the banner of the Sanatan Dharma Sabha.
A similar umbrella outfit had spearheaded the 2008 Amarnath land row agitation, which had sharpened the divide between the Jammu and Kashmir provinces.
A retired Army Colonel, Sukhbir Singh Mankotia, was elected unanimously last week as the convenor of the Sanatan Dharma Sabha, with Purushottam Dadhichi its president. The members of the Sabha include various social, community, business, and religious organisations.
Dadhichi said there was widespread opposition to the admission list as 42 of the 50 MBBS seats at the Vaishnodevi institute had gone to the Muslim community. The matter was first taken up by RSS outfits, including the BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal, which argued that such a large share to Muslims in the Vaishnodevi institute seats was unfair as the college had been built with donations made to the Hindu shrine.
Addressing the media Monday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called the protests baseless, saying that when the J&K Assembly passed the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Act and gave it the land to establish its campus, it was clearly mentioned that admissions would be made on the basis of merit alone. “Where was it written that boys and girls from a particular religion will be kept out? It was said that admissions will be based on merit and not religion… If you want to admit without merit, then take permission from the Supreme Court.”
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The CM added that if decisions are to be taken on the basis of religion, “then social welfare schemes shall also be decided on the basis of it’’. “Will religion be asked at ration depots, or policemen perform their duty after seeing the religion (of a person)?”
In 2008, the Sanatan Hindu Sabha had gathered different social, religious, traders and community organisations, under the banner of the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, in protest against the Ghulam Nabi Azad led Congress-PDP coalition government’s decision to cancel land allotted in Kashmir to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for the use of pilgrims. The issue had led to the collapse of the government, with the PDP questioning the government’s move to allot land in the Valley for this in the first place.
Leela Karan Sharma, the VHP president in 2008, said that at the meeting held over the Vaishnodevi institute Saturday, everyone agreed that a struggle was necessary for a lasting solution and, by consensus, decided to float the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sangharsh Samiti and extend every help to it.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha is already seized of a memorandum seeking cancellation of the admission process, submitted to him by a delegation of BJP legislators. Leader of the Opposition Sunil Sharma, who headed the delegation, told mediapersons that “it is not acceptable to people of the country that students from a particular community should get admissions to the college” which has come up with donations from pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine, and said the L-G had assured them of necessary action in the matter.
BJP Udhampur MLA R S Pathania has called for amendments to the Shrine Board Act and the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board University Act, saying: “Institutions built from the devotion and offerings of Mata Vaishnodevi Devi shrine Devi pilgrims must function in full alignment with the ethos of the Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Devi Shrine Board.”
Trouble erupted after the J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations released a list of 50 candidates for the Vaishnodevi institute, 42 of them Muslims from Kashmir and eight Hindus from Jammu. The admissions were as per rules and the NEET merit list, with the institute not enjoying minority status.
Sources said that the trend of the Muslim community outnumbering Hindus in medical admissions is not exclusive to the Vaishnodevi institute but common to all medical colleges in the Union Territory. Students from Jammu are more likely to go for engineering.
CM Abdullah said that “secularism is still there in our Constitution” and that if the BJP wants to end it, “it should first remove that word”. “Uske baad jo aapney karna hoga kariye, jo hamein karna hoga hum kar lenge (After that, you do what you want to do, we will do what we have to).”
Asking what was the fault of the children who had secured admission, the National Conference leader said that those left out should “work hard, pass the examination and get admission”.