Why can’t only Hindus study in Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College? as per demand

Controversy arose when admission for MBBS students took place in Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Institute of Medical Excellence located in Katra. Because out of the 50 students who were admitted, 42 are Kashmiri Muslims. Seeing this, BJP and Hindu organizations got heated. They started saying that this medical college is run with the money of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Trust. Muslim students should not be given admission in this. Only Hindu students can study here. On this, the Chief Minister of the state Omar Abdullah said, when you were establishing this medical institute, at the same time you should have given it the status of minority institute. Why was this not done? The controversy is at its peak. In such a situation, the biggest question is why Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College cannot teach only Hindus? As per the demand. Second, why were mostly Muslim students given admission there and not Hindus?

Understand how this whole matter happened

1. To understand this we will have to go back a little. This year, 50 seats were allotted for MBBS in Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Institute of Medical Excellence. Counseling for admission in this college was also done on the basis of NEET ranking like 13 medical colleges of Jammu and Kashmir.
2. There were a total of 1,685 seats in these 13 colleges, for which 5,865 students were shortlisted. All were residents of Union Territory. This was done because 85% seats are reserved for domicile students of the Union Territory and the remaining 15% seats are open for students from the rest of India.
3. 2000 other students were called for admission to the remaining seats. More than 70% of the students in this list were from Muslim community. Therefore, when the list of Vaishno Devi Medical College was released, 90 percent students coming from the Muslim community were given admission.
4. Officials say that this is not a new pattern, due to the large number of Muslim students, seats in most of the colleges in Jammu region are also filled by Kashmiri students. He says that on the basis of merit, Muslim students got place in this college also, because the number of Hindu students was less.
   

   Demand for recruitment from All India Ranking

• Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Institute of Medical Excellence had presented a proposal to the National Medical Council (NMC) for admission through the quota system. He said that all 50 seats should be allotted through Medical Counseling Committee (MCC), so that candidates from across the country can compete.
• The college said that since it is entirely funded by donations to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and does not receive any financial support from the Union Territory administration, the admission process should reflect the all-India character of the temple and its devotees. But the National Medical Council rejected this proposal.

What did Omar Abdullah say?

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said, admissions are done on the basis of NEET and entrance examinations, not on the basis of religion. If you want that Muslims should not study in this institute, then you should declare it a minority institute. In future, if you point fingers at Muslims and accuse them of being communal or sectarian, then you should remember this incident at that time. When you do not tolerate their (Muslims) children, and if something happens tomorrow, you cannot blame the entire community for that.

So what is the meaning of minority institution?

According to the Constitution, some communities like Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis are considered minorities. Minority institutions are those educational institutions which are established and run by these communities, so that they can preserve their language, culture and traditions. In such a situation, the question is can Hindus and people of other religions study there? So the answer is yes. There is no law preventing students from other religions from being admitted to any recognized minority educational institution in India.

Then what is the specialty of a ‘minority’ institution?

1. They can reserve some percentage of seats for students of their community. For example, a Christian college may reserve up to 50% of its seats for Christian students. These institutions enjoy slightly more freedom in staff recruitment, curriculum or administrative decisions.

2. So are non-minority students taken in fewer numbers? Not necessary. Because in many minority institutions the number of non-minority students is very high. Many institutions also admit up to 90% non-minority students. It completely depends on the policies of the institute.