Omar Abdullah's ‘shut it’ remark amid Vaishno Devi medical college admission row

Amid controversy over admission to 46 Muslim students out of a total of 50 in the maiden batch for MBBS course at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday asked the BJP government adjust the students to other medical colleges and close the newly opened medical college to end the controversy.

Omar accused the BJP for its alleged communal politics on education, sports and food habits.

Responding to media queries after reviewing various projects of the public works department, Omar said, “The children passed exams and secured seats on their hard work. None did any favour to them. If you don’t want them there then adjust them somewhere else.”

“In the given scenario, I don’t feel that students themselves would like to study there. We request GOI and the health ministry to adjust these children in other colleges. Had I been a parent of these students, I wouldn’t have sent them. We wouldn’t want them to study where there’s so much politics,” he added.

“Give our children another medical college and close that medical college (Vaishno Devi). We don’t need such a medical college. Adjust these children in good government medical colleges,” he asserted.

When asked about BJP’s senior leader and MLA, Sham Lal Sharma’s demand to make Jammu a separate state, the CM sarcastically said that who has stopped the BJP from doing so. “They have already ruined Ladakh by separating it from J&K. Now, if they want to make Jammu a separate state then who is stopping them. They should have done it in 2019 itself when they were doing all this (revocation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K in two UTs),” he said.

“Ladkah they couldn’t tackle. Now, they want to separate Jammu on the basis of religion. They drag religion into everything, be it sports, education and even food habits,” he added.

On delay over reservation policy, the CM said that the question better be asked to the LG Manoj Sinha. “We did our job. A cabinet sub committee prepared a report and cabinet vetted it before sending it to Lok Bhawan. Now, LG has to give his approval,” he said.

On Bangladesh cricketer Mustafizur Rahman, who has been released by KKR in view of atrocities and killings of Hindus in Bangladesh, Omar said that there was no fault of the cricketer. “What harm Bangladesh has done to us, Bangladesh has not sponsored terrorism in our country. We always had good relations with them. I agree that our relations with Pakistan are bad but they are not with Bangladesh. The matter had to dealt at the level of the government. What will you achieve by expelling a player? Will the situation in Bangladesh and our ties improve? On the contrary, our relations will deteriorate,” he said.

Youth wing of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sangharsh Samiti on Tuesday held a protest near civil secretariat against J&K government’s alleged discriminatory policies and board of professional entrance examination (BOPEE’s) “flawed” selection process pertaining to first batch of MBBS students in Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College.

During the protest, a large number of youth gathered near the secretariat complex and raised slogans against the UT government, specifically targeting chief minister Omar Abdullah and health minister Sakina Ittoo.

They alleged that the future of Jammu’s students was being toyed with under the government’s nose and constitutional institutions were being misused to benefit a specific group.

Convener of the Sangharsh Samiti, Colonel (retd) Sukhvir Singh Mankotia, said that any compromise on transparency in sacred sectors like education and health was unacceptable.

He demanded immediate intervention from the CM and the health minister to cancel the “flawed” admission process and restore a fair and impartial system.

Bajrang Dal activists led by its president Rakesh Bajragni also held a protest at bus stand over MBBS admission row and burnt an effigy of shrine board.

Police sealed the civil secretariat to foil any attempt of protest by the Sangharsh Samiti, officials said.