‘Anti-Muslim Apartheid’: Kashmir leaders condemn BJP’s demand for review of SMVDIME’s MBBS admissions

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation met the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu on November 23, seeking the cancellation of the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) admission list issued for the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME). The delegation requested that the list be withdrawn and the selection process reviewed.

The development invited immediate condemnation from political leaders in the valley, who said that admissions made under the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) cannot be altered on the basis of community-linked objections. Several responses described the BJP’s demand as an attempt to create separate standards for different groups of candidates.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter and PDP politician, Iltija Mufti, said the call to scrap the list reflected discrimination in the education sector and termed it “anti-Muslim apartheid”. She said the list was based on NEET merit and challenged critics to cite any violation of admission rules.

“In Naya Kashmir, discrimination towards Muslims now also extends to education. The irony being that this anti-Muslim apartheid is being legitimised & carried out in India’s only Muslim majority state with its only Muslim Chief Minister. Shameful,” she posted on X.

SMVDIME MBBS Admissions: NEET-based selection upheld

J&K People’s Conference president Sajad Lone said medical admissions are governed by NEET and warned that linking the outcome to religion undermines academic and clinical standards. He said any interference with merit-based selection affects training, research and public health delivery.

“This new issue of students admitted to Medical school of the Vaishno Devi University. This is too much of stretch. The BJP is now experimenting with concept of communalising medical sciences. I just hope they understand that there is a proper admission test called NEET. And that is an All India test,” Lone posted on X.

The issue gained political attention after the first MBBS batch at SMVDIME recorded 42 Muslim candidates among 50 seats. Groups in Jammu had opposed the intake pattern, while leaders in the valley said the institute is publicly funded and does not have minority status, making religion-based objections untenable.