The National Medical Commission (NMC) revoked the recognition of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute in Reasi district on January 6, citing alleged failure to meet required standards, a decision critics say came amid intense pressure from groups opposed to the religious composition of the students admitted.
India has shut down a medical college in Indian-administered Kashmir following weeks of protests by right-wing Hindu groups over the admission of a predominantly Muslim batch of students into its first medical programme.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) revoked the recognition of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute in Reasi district on January 6, citing alleged failure to meet required standards, a decision critics say came amid intense pressure from groups opposed to the religious composition of the students admitted.
The institute, founded by a Hindu religious charity and partly funded by the government, had launched its first five-year MBBS programme in November with 50 students, comprising 42 Muslims, seven Hindus and one Sikh, according to Al Jazeera.
Admissions to medical colleges in India are determined through the National Entrance Examination Test (NEET), a centralised and religion-neutral process taken by more than two million candidates annually for about 120,000 seats nationwide.
Students select colleges based on merit and preference after meeting the required threshold.
Tensions erupted soon after the academic session began when local Hindu groups objected to the religious composition of the inaugural batch
Protesters argued that because the college was largely funded from donations to the Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, a major Hindu shrine, Muslim students had “no business being there.”
For weeks, protesters gathered outside the campus demanding cancellation of Muslim admissions.
Legislators from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrote to the region’s lieutenant governor seeking to reserve seats exclusively for Hindu students.
As the agitation grew, some groups demanded the complete closure of the college.
Amid the unrest, the NMC announced that the institute lacked adequate faculty, patient flow, library resources and operating theatre standards.
The next day, its letter of permission to run medical courses was formally withdrawn.
Many students rejected the regulator’s claims. Jahan, a first-year student, said the campus was better equipped than several established colleges.
“Some colleges have only one cadaver per batch, while this college had four, allowing individual dissection for every student,” she noted.
Rafiq, another student, compared the facilities favourably with government colleges in Srinagar.
“Even they don’t have the kind of resources we had here,” he said. Parents echoed the sentiment.
Gazanfar Ahmad, father of 18-year-old student Saniya Jan, recalled that the campus appeared fully functional when he dropped his daughter in November.
“The faculty was supportive. Inside the campus no one cared about religion,” he said.
Political analyst Zafar Choudhary questioned how deficiencies emerged suddenly after initial approval.
“Logic dictates the infrastructure would have improved since classes started,” he remarked, describing the protesters’ demand as “absurd” in a system based on merit.
The college administration has remained silent. Executive head Yashpal Sharma did not respond to requests for comment.
With the authorisation withdrawn, students have returned home uncertain about their future. Salim Manzoor, one of them, pointed out that a medical college in the Muslim-majority region already reserves seats for Hindu and other minority communities.
“No one questioned that arrangement,” he said.
BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur denied the issue was communal, insisting the NMC acted solely on technical grounds while acknowledging the “legitimate sentiments” of Hindu devotees attached to the shrine.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, however, condemned the campaign and vowed that students would not suffer.
He announced that all 50 would be accommodated in other medical colleges through supernumerary seats.
“These children cleared NEET; it is our legal responsibility to adjust them,” he said, accusing protesters of “playing with the future” of young aspirants.
Regional legislator Tanvir Sadiq noted that the university had received more than $13m in government funding since 2017, making all residents stakeholders.
Student leader Nasir Khuehami warned that framing admissions along religious lines threatened to “communalise” education in the region.
Back in Baramulla, Saniya Jan fears years of hard work may be wasted.
“I passed one of the toughest exams in India and earned a seat,” she said. “Now everything has crashed because of our identity. They turned our merit into religion.”
The closure has ignited a wider debate on secular admissions and minority rights in the disputed region, with observers warning that the precedent could deepen communal divisions across India’s education sector.