SMVD Medical College row: Mehbooba Mufti questions Omar Abdullah’s remarks before NMC order
Srinagar, Jan 9: Expressing concern over withdrawal of permission of the Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College ( SMVDMC) by the National Medical Commission (NMC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) President and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said a “premature hint” by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah about closure of the medical college was a step towards “normalising this decision.”
“A day prior, Omar sahib said the medical college should be closed, and the following day this order (NMC directive) was issued,” said Mehbooba while addressing media persons here.
Without naming the BJP or the centre, Mufti said: “The question is whether there was a discussion between them and the CM ( Omar) that what he said a day prior actually took place,” said Mehbooba.
Mufti said there were a lot of rumours doing the rounds about the “division of J&K”, adding that withdrawal of the Letter of Permission ( LoP) by NMC to SMVDU defies the decision of Kashmir as a Muslim majority of acceding with India. “It is not just a matter of Sri Mata Vaishno Devi College. This will set a precedent and become a pattern given the past experiences, that such experiments carried out in J&K were replicated in the rest of the country,” said Mufti.
She said adjusting the affected SMVDMC students is the duty of the government, adding that they had cleared the NEET exam to secure a place in the medical college. The former CM expressed concern that “if there were no opportunities and avenues for Muslim majority youth in J&K, what would their fate in the rest of states be,” Mufti lamented. The PDP chief said lakhs of Kashmiri students are enrolled in colleges across India, adding that “it was a matter of concern the way protests by a few fringe groups for few days in Jammu led to withdrawal of permission to a medical institution.” “These sorts of steps would encourage right-wing and communal elements in other states to launch such extreme demands against our youth. Who will then stop them?,” asked Mufti. CM Omar should have opposed the decision of withdrawal tooth and nail with the centre.
Commenting on the rumours of a possible “division of J&K”, Mufti said that this narrative being created is a matter of concern. “ If this is going in a direction in which the divisive forces want it to be, then it validates Jinnah’s two-nation theory. This is an attempt to defeat Kashmir’s ethos of having always held the hand of the rest of the country as a result of the pluralism,” she added.
