BJP slammed for communalising institutions in IIOJK
Jammu: Political parties in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have strongly condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for attempting to communalise professional institutions after the party demanded Hindu-only reservation in admissions at the Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the backlash came a day after a BJP delegation led by Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma met the territory’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to protest the allocation of 42 MBBS seats to non-Hindu candidates on merit. The move has triggered widespread criticism across the Valley, with parties warning that the BJP’s politics of division is pushing IIOJK towards deep communal polarisation.
National Conference (NC) chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said the BJP was attempting to inject religious bias into institutions that should remain neutral and merit-based. “When you communalise institutions, you aren’t just doing politics — you are dividing society at its core. If hospitals, schools and medical colleges start deciding intake based on faith, what kind of country will we become?” he asked.
Sadiq termed the BJP’s demand “misguided and dangerous”, warning that a shrine-funded establishment does not become a religion-based institution. “BJP, please do not turn our institutions into battlegrounds of faith. You are planting a time bomb that will create a divide no one will ever be able to fix,” he added.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Iltija Mufti said the controversy reflected the realities of “Naya Kashmir”, where discrimination against Muslims had now extended into education. “The irony is that this anti-Muslim apartheid is being carried out in India’s only Muslim-majority region. Shameful,” she said.
The BJP delegation, during its meeting with L-G, claimed that the selection of “a large number of non-Hindu” candidates had hurt the sentiments of devotees.
Valley-based parties, however, maintain that the BJP’s stance is part of its wider agenda to reshape institutions in IIOJK along communal lines, undermining merit, equality, and the secular character of public education. They warned that the attempt to impose religious considerations on admissions further exposes the Modi regime’s discriminatory policies in the occupied territory.
