Protesters burn LG Manoj Sinha’s effigy over SMVD medical college admission row

Protestors on Saturday burnt an effigy of Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha here and raised slogans against him, demanding revocation of the MBBS admission list of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (SMVD) Institute of Medical Excellence in Katra, in which, among the first batch of 50 students, 42 were Muslims from Kashmir and seven were Hindus and one Sikh.

Although the admissions were done through the NEET merit list, the protestors demanded that the medical institute should be reserved for Hindu students, as it was being funded with donations of Hindu devotees by the Vaishnodevi Shrine Board.

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Protestors, including women, gathered outside the Lok Bhavan and vainly tried to break the police cordon. However, a strong deployment of police force pushed them back. They raised slogans such as “LG go back”.

The protest was organised by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sangharsh Samiti, a recently-formed conglomeration of various right-wing organizations. J&K BJP’s women activists and several trade leaders, including the president of Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Arun Gupta, also joined the protest.

The protest led to the blocking of the main road outside Lok Bhavan, resulting in traffic snarls on adjoining roads and causing hardship to commuters for more than one-and-a-half hours.

Samiti convener Sukhvir Singh Mankotia told reporters that they have staged the protest outside the Lok Bhavan because the Lt Governor is the chairman of the Vaishnodevi Shrine Board and it is his responsibility to ensure that the religious sentiments of any community should not be hurt.

“We will continue our protest till the resolution of our genuine demands, which are related to our faith. We are not against students of any particular religion, we just want the seats in the medical college to be reserved for Hindu students alone,” he added.

Meanwhile, the issue has snowballed into a major controversy and protests are being held almost daily at different places. Senior BJP leaders have apprised the central leadership, including party president and health minister JP Nadda, about the controversy.