A LARGE contingent of students from Kashmir has been forced to come to Delhi to seek justice in the form of re-admission to medical colleges in the state after their admissions to the medical colleges in the state were cancelled. This bizarre fact was brought to light at a press conference in Delhi by SFI president P Krishnaprasad and general secretary Samik Lahiri on June 23. SFI joint secretaries Kallol Rai, K K Ragesh and Partho Mukherjee as well as its vice president Somnath Bhattacharya were also present at the press conference.

Some of the students present at the press conference had a sad tale to tell. Their admissions were cancelled simply because they belong to a minority religious community, and even the prime minister’s good intentions have not been able to restore their admissions.

Some students from Kashmir --- Asif Aslam Dar, Iftikhar Jeelani, Javed Ahmed Bhat, Shaukat Rashid, Parvez Ahmed and Umar Javed --- have been moving from pillar to post first in their own state and then in Delhi to get their admissions restored. A strange part of the story is that they were students of the Prime Medical College which was closed down, and then they were given regular admission in government colleges but were scattered in three different locations. But the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student outfit of the RSS, objected to these Muslim students being admitted to the Jammu Medical College, saying that their admission would deprive Hindu students of admission. Instead of facilitating the admission of students, that should have been the job of the ABVP, here the ABVP has degraded itself to the level of working against the students community due to despicable communal considerations.

The facts of the case are as below. The said students were admitted to the Prime College, Srinagar, in 1995. The J&K state government later closed down the college in absence of formal approval by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and requested the central government in a letter dated May 17, 2000, to accommodate these students in the existing affiliated colleges in the state. It cited the example of the students of PC Dental College in Karnataka, who faced a situation similar to that of the Prime College students, and were accommodated in other colleges by the government of India.

Fighting for justice, these Kashmiri students were able to convince the Medical Council of India which increased the allocation of seats in J&K medical colleges from 300 to 367 so that these students could be accommodated. It was on the basis of this increase that these students were re-admitted. The J&K chief minister, who had earlier written to the central government regarding their admission, has now cancelled their admissions under pressure from the ABVP and unleashed a reign of terror against these students.

In its order dated December 8, 2000, the central NDA government directed the government of J&K to accommodate these 67 medical students in medical/dental colleges of J&K. After the requisite permission was granted by the Medical Council of India as a one-time waiver, these students joined their classes from December 20, 2000 onwards. But, at this point, the ABVP unleashed a violent agitation in the Jammu region, demanding that the admissions of these Kashmiri students be cancelled. The NDA government bowed down to the communal ABVP’s pressure and issued an order on February 28 this year cancelling its own earlier order, thus putting the future of these 67 Kashmiri medical students in peril. Many out of these students are girls.

In desperation, and with great difficulty, these students were able to meet the prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who promised to get them readmitted within 48 hours. He directed the students to his health minister C P Thakur, recommending their re-admission. The health minister responded positively, but was unable to re-admit the students due to the objection raised by none other than L K Advani, the home minister who stands by the ABVP. Thankur then asked the delegation of Kashmiri medical students to somehow persuade Advani. Unfortunately, the home minister, who has been meeting everyone, refused to meet these Kashmiri Muslim students and turned a deaf ear to their petitions. Even the pleas from former prime ministers Chandrashekhar and V P Singh failed to move Advani. Realising the sad plight of these Kashmiri students, both these former prime ministers have already spoken to Advani to do justice to them, but in vain.

The sufferings of these 67 students, who are in utter despair and mental agony for no fault of theirs, can well be imagined. They have already lost 6 precious years and have not been able to appear in the first year MBBS examination to date. These students are getting overaged and are mentally depressed. Under the ABVP’s pressure, the NDA government is thus ruining the career of 67 Kashmiri students. It is criminal and inhuman. All right thinking persons owe the responsibility of standing by these hapless Kashmiri students and bring pressure upon the NDA government to do justice to them.

The SFI has strongly protested against the decision of the NDA government to cancel the admission of these 67 Kashmiri medical students in Medical/Dental Colleges of J&K via its Order No. U 12012/23/99 ME (P) dated February 26/28, 2001. The decision indicates the anti-minority character of the NDA government which does not hesitate to discriminate against the Kashmir people due to its commitment to the communal ideology of the Sangh Parivar. The SFI has strongly demanded that these 67 Kashmiri medical students be accommodated at the earliest and justice be ensured to them. While the central government is trying to normalise the situation in Kashmir, on the other hand, its home minister is committing an injustice by denying even an audience to these helpless students.

The SFI has appealed to the students and public of the country to support the just cause of these 67 Kashmiri students. A demand has been made to the NDA government and the prime minister to do justice to these students at the earliest by allowing them to continue their studies and protecting their right to education. (INN)