The admissions for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery course are made through a nationwide test. In Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu and Kashmir, 42 of 50 seats have gone to the largest minority community. This has angered the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which submitted a memorandum to the lieutenant-governor about scrapping the test. The leader of the Opposition in Jammu and Kashmir led a delegation of legislators to the lieutenant-governor asking to reserve all seats for candidates from the majority community. It is prejudiced acts like this one that reveal the true colours of Hindutva. There was nothing unfair in the admissions list; yet the BJP cannot accept the fact that candidates from the minority community should do better than majority community candidates. The hunger to prove the majority community — implying the majority religion — superior and unbeatable has now tainted education. This can bring a new perspective to bear on the principle of equality in the National Education Policy, 2020. It would seem that the BJP considers some more equal than others. Besides being petty and discriminatory — the demand affects the careers of aspiring young people — it is also unconstitutional. Article 15 of the Constitution expressly forbids discrimination on the basis of religion. It is surprising that the party in charge of the country should be so uncaring of the Constitution despite its routine pious pledges to uphold the doctrine’s provisions.
Admissions are based on merit. Reservations for underprivileged castes and tribes have been introduced to ensure that education is delivered fairly and equally. Religion can have nothing to do with it. Yet the BJP is openly insisting that not merit but religion be considered the deciding factor in education. This is ominous for education in the whole country. The chief minister, Omar Abdullah, has said that once religion is put above merit, it will spread to areas like social welfare, public distribution, and the police. That the lieutenant-governor in Kashmir accepted the memorandum is also alarming. Such a demand can have no place in a secular country. Kashmir is a Muslim-majority state. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the minority community should dominate an admissions list. The political dimension to the demand is obvious in the anger of Kashmir-based parties against the BJP. Religion-based politics over an admissions list is a deeply worrying thing for a university and a state.