The BJP has invited sharp reactions from Kashmir-based parties over its decision to submit a memorandum before lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha seeking to scrap the recent MBBS admission list at Mata Vaishno Devi University because most of those who qualified were Muslims.
The BJP’s Sunil Kumar Sharma, Jammu and Kashmir’s leader of Opposition, led a delegation of party legislators recently to the LG’s office to present a memorandum favouring the reservation of all seats for Hindus.
The admissions are made through a nationwide competitive test. The LG heads the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine board.
The BJP’s move came amid protests by Jammu-based Right-wing groups against the list, which they said had 42 Muslims qualifying out of a total of 50.
The memorandum was accepted by the LG, further angering the Muslims.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said that when a bill for setting up the university was moved in the Assembly, it did not mention that the admissions would be made based on religion. The bill was unlikely to have become a law without the support of Muslim MLAs, he said.
“It was said at that time that the admissions would be made on merit, not religion. If admissions are made on merit now, some people object to it. If you have to make admissions based on religion, take permission from the Supreme Court,” Omar told reporters here.
“As far as I know, you cannot make admissions outside merit. The Constitution of our country does not allow it.”
Omar suggested that if such decisions are made on religion today, they will spread to other departments such as social welfare, public distribution and police.
“Will policemen work on the basis of their religion? As of today, the word secularism is written in our Constitution. If you don’t want to keep the country secular, remove this word,” he said.
Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti termed the BJP’s move shameful.
“In Naya Kashmir, discrimination towards Muslims now also extends to education. The irony being that this anti-Muslim apartheid is being legitimised and carried out in India’s only Muslim-majority state with its only Muslim chief minister,” Mehbooba said.