Protests erupt over MBBS admissions at Vaishno Devi Medical College
Jammu: The MBBS admission process at Katra-based Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Institute of Medical Excellence is now facing a controversy as the protests have reportedly been launched in the Jammu region.
Pointing out that 90% of the students admitted to the medical college are Muslim students belonging to Kashmir, the protestors have demanded to scrap the admission list for the first batch of students.
The Indian Express has reported that the BJP Udhampur MLA has supported the protests, backed by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal. They have reasoned that Vaishno Devi Medical College is an institute set up with the donations offered to the Vaishno Devi shrine, and therefore, 'it should not be dominated by the members of the Muslim community'. They have also demanded reservations of the seats at the medical college for Hindus.
However, since Vaishnodevi Medical College is not classified as a minority institution, it is not possible to reserve these seats for Hindus under the current rules.
Also Read: Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence gets approval for 50 MBBS seats
The protestors from VHP and Bajrang Dal have held demonstrations outside the Katra institute and burnt the effigy of the Chief Executive Officer of the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, the Indian Express has reported.
How did the protests start?
The Daily has reported that the protests regarding the MBBS admission at the institute started after the J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (JKBOPEE) released a list of 50 candidates for the Vaishnodevi Institute of Medical Excellence. Among these 50 candidates, 42 hail from the Kashmir region, while eight students hail from Jammu. Already 36 candidates from Kashmir and three candidates from Jammu have taken admission.
Put Admission on Hold:
Commenting on the matter, the VHP J&K President Rajesh Gupta said that the admissions for the 2025-2026 session should be put on hold and the management should correct its "mistake" and ensure that a majority of the students picked for the next session belong to the Hindu community.
Meanwhile, the President of J&K Bajrang Dal, Rakesh Bajrangi, has alleged bias on the part of JPBOPEE in preparing the admission list. He argued that the management should have made the admissions from the Central NEET pool instead ad it had candidates from all over India and because the college had been set up from donations by pilgrims across the country.
"We have no objection to candidates from Kashmir taking admission in any other medical college, but seats should be reserved for Hindu candidates in the Vaishnodevi college, as it has come up with Vaishno Devi shrine donations," he clarified.
Speaking to the Indian Express in this regard, the BJP MLA said, "Even minority institutes that get government funding have seats reserved for the community which they claim to represent… Here, the institute does not take a single penny from the government and runs on donations made by Vaishno Devi pilgrims. So seats should be reserved for Hindu students as the issue involves the faith of pilgrims."
Admissions made as per NMC Guidelines, Claim Officials:
Meanwhile, on the condition of anonymity, officials have pointed out that the admissions were in order, as the guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) specify that admissions to all the 1,685 seats in the 13 medical colleges of J&K be done as per the NEET list. The other condition is keeping 85% of the seats reserved for the UT domiciles, and keeping the rest of the 15% of the seats to the candidates from the All India Quota.
Admission to Vaishnodevi College was delayed as the Apex Medical Commission granted the nod only on September 8. By that time, the first round of counselling in J&K had already been concluded and the second round was also nearing completion. Therefore, the list of selected candidates for Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Institute of Medical Excellence was prepared after the third round of counselling.
For admission to all 13 medical colleges, JKBOPEE shortlisted 5,865 UT domicile candidates. Among them, 2000 candidates were called for the counselling. More than 70% of the candidates in this list also belonged to the Muslim community. Most of the 87 candidates from Jammu, who got admitted to five government medical colleges in Kashmir, were against the seats reserved for SCs/STs, EWS and residents of areas along the Line of Control and International Border.
As per the officials, this pattern was not new and was in line with a recent trend. While the availability of seats in medical colleges in the Jammu region is more, as Jammu has 900 seats while Kashmir has 675, most of these seats have been taken up by students from Kashmir in the past few years. The officials claimed that the reverse trend is true for engineering seats, as students from Jammu are more likely to opt for them.
Sources informed the Daily that earlier, the authorities had asked for permission from the Centre and NMC to admit students from the central pool prepared by NEET. However, they were denied permission as the NMC allows such admissions only in case of government institutes, or premier institutes like AIIMS and PGIs, which are established by an Act of Parliament, or in case of Deemed Universities.
Meanwhile, the National Conference’s Jammu province president, Rattan Lal Gupta blamed the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and said, "While applying to the NMC for setting up a medical college, it should have also sought minority status."
