Ruhullah Mehdi puts J&K govt on notice over quota policy, vows to join protests after Parliament session

Srinagar, Nov 25: Estranged National Conference Lok Sabha MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi has asked the party-led government in Jammu and Kashmir to resolve the reservation issue before the Winter session of Parliament ends, saying he will join the quota protests if no action is taken.

The Winter session will be held from December 1 to 19, with 15 working days.

Mehdi has backed the demand of the general category candidates for a review of the existing reservation policy. He also accused the Union territory administration of ignoring the concerns of educated youth.

“What will it take for those in the government to understand the agony and hopelessness that our aspiring youths are facing? What will make them understand that this is suffocating an entire young generation and pushing them to walls? “Doesn’t today’s case in the Vaishno Devi University about students with merit open their eyes? Don’t they feel the urgency to resolve this matter and give some relief to our youth,” Mehdi, the Budgam MP and an influential Shia leader, said in a post on X.

Mehdi had joined student protests outside Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s residence in December last year, seeking rationalisation of quota.

Abdullah later set up a Cabinet sub-committee to look into the grievances raised by various sections of aspirants against the existing reservation policy in the Union territory, and submit a report within six months.

On October 16, Abdullah said the Cabinet has accepted the report of the sub-committee, and the same was to be sent to the lieutenant governor for his approval.

“Last year, they said six months. Those six months have turned into a year. Few weeks ago, before Budgam Assembly by-election, they said few days without letting anyone know whether they have resolved the issue. Those few days are now turning into more than a month,” Mehdi, who did not campaign for the party candidate in the Budgam bypoll, which the NC lost, said.

He added that even a future resolution would not make up for the loss suffered by the job aspirants.

“Now even if they solve this issue sometime in future, which I think is unlikely, what will compensate the years they have already lost and the vacancies which are already gone,” he asked.

Mehdi added that if the government does not act by December 20, he will again joint the protesters.

“I will sit with them again the way we did last December. And this time it will not be for a day,” he said.

In another post, Mehdi hit out at the BJP for raising objections to Muslims outnumbering Hindus in MBBS admission at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU).

“So, now we’re told Muslim students shouldn’t study at Vaishno Devi University because it has Hindu donors, even though it’s a state-backed institution,” he said.

He also questioned the government’s decision to appoint non-Muslims to Waqf boards while at the same time objecting to Muslim enrolment at the SMVDU.

“How does the BJP justify these two opposite positions? What principle is at work here? It is a very selective use of religion, one that always seems to run in only one direction,” he said.

Chief Minister Abdullah on Monday took strong exception to the BJP’s stance on admissions in the SMVDU, and said any move to grant MBBS seats without merit would require the Supreme Court’s approval.

“When the Assembly passed the Bill for the establishment of the Mata Vaishno Devi University, where was it written that students from a particular religion will be kept outside its purview? At that time, it was said that admissions will not be given on the basis of religion but only on the basis of merit,” the chief minister said.

The SMVDIME was sanctioned 50 MBBS seats this year. However, admissions given to 42 students from a particular community in the maiden batch for the 2025-26 academic year have sparked a controversy, with right-wing Hindu groups questioning the process, and demanding “minority institution” status for the newly-established institute.

Officials, however, claimed that admissions were given on merit as the institute had not been granted minority status and, therefore, no reservation criteria based on religion could be applied. (PTI)