Srinagar: Jammu Kashmir Peoples Conference Chairman Sajad Lone on Sunday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party over the controversy surrounding students admitted to the medical school of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, alleging that the party was attempting to communalise medical education in the country.
Reacting strongly, Lone said the issue had been stretched unnecessarily and accused the BJP of experimenting with the idea of dragging communal narratives into a field as critical as medical sciences. He said that medical education in India followed a transparent and standardised process under the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, which selects some of the finest young minds in the country.
“This new issue of students admitted to the medical school of the Vaishno Devi University is too much of a stretch. The BJP is now experimenting with the concept of communalising medical sciences. I just hope they understand that there is a proper admission test called NEET. And that is an all-India test. And that the finest brains in the country sit that exam and those who get selected work hard to become a doctor,” Lone said.
He said these students go on to serve people, perform surgeries, and contribute to research that advances medical science. “They dedicate their lives to research. They come up with newer ideas to defeat diseases. Look at how medical science has evolved over the last few decades. Heart care, eye care, restoring eyesight, robotic surgery, the MRI machine, the CT scan. The scientists who made all this possible will turn in their graves when they find out that medicine has been relegated to a group of undereducated political leaders miring a subject as noble as medicine into communalism.”
Lone said a basic level of intelligence should be made mandatory for participation in public life. He added that India should be working alongside global institutions to strengthen its research culture and contribute meaningfully to medical innovation instead of reducing the field to divisive politics.
He said medical science requires researchers, not religious zealots.
Meanwhile, netizens termed the protests by fringe groups as drama, stating that admissions at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University are conducted through NEET purely on merit and the entire process is determined by the Centre. [KNT]
