DEMANDING the restoration of admission of 67 Kashmiri medical students, a 48 hour hunger strike was organised by SFI along with the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of J&K students at Jantar Mantar on July 12 and 13, 2001. Iftikar Jeelani and Showkath Rasheed, both medical students from Srinagar, and Vijoo Krishnan, SFI Delhi state vice president and former JNUSU president, observed hunger strike.

Mohd. Yousuf Tarigami CPI(M) central committee member of CPI(M) and MLA from J&K inaugurated the strike. SFI all India president P Krishnaprasad, AISF general gecretary Vijender Shukla, JNUSU vice president Albeena Shakeel, IARISU president, Gautham Sreedhar, Asif Aslam Dhar of JAC, SFI Delhi state secretary Anurag Saxena, DYFI Delhi state secretary Mahesh Kumar were among those who addressed the dharna.

Mohd. Yousuf Tarigami, in his speech, condemned the discriminatory attitude of the NDA government against the Kashmiri students and expressed his happiness on the wide support extended by the progressive and secular student organisations towards the victimised students. He extended full support on behalf of CPI(M) to the striking students and called upon all the secular and democratic political parties to rally against the communal position of ABVP which is ruining the life of 67 innocent students.

P Krishnaprasad has warned the NDA government that if the admission is not restored, SFI will mobilise all secular and democratic student organisations and political forces to unleash a continuous struggle till the demand is met. He ridiculed ABVP saying it never opposed capitation fee oriented private educational institutions.

SFI and JAC have announced their decision to organise an indefinite mass satyagraha at Rajghat from July 25 onwards, when parliament will be in session. The AISF, AISB and NSUI have offered their full support to the issue. Students from Kashmir will visit the campuses of Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia University, ICAR, AIIMS, JNU etc and attend public meetings. A demonstration of students will be organised on July 25 at Rajghat.

Former prime ministers V P Singh and Chandrasekhar, CPI (M) floor leader in Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee and former Rajya Sabha member Syed Shahabuddin and many others have extended support to the students and wrote to the prime minister and home minister demanding the students readmission.

The 67 medical students from Jammu & Kashmir are facing serious crisis due to the cancellation of their admission by the NDA government by an order on February 28, 2001 under political pressure from ABVP-RSS combine. This has become a test case of the discriminatory policy of the NDA government against the people of Kashmir. Only because they hail from the valley and majority of them are muslims, these medical students were denied justice and subjected to political and communal victimisation.

They got admission in the Public Research Institute of Multiplex Education (PRIME) Medical College, Budgam, Srinagar, which was a private medical college, in the year 1995. The state government of J&K had closed down the PRIME College in the year 1998 due to the lack of formal recognition by the Medical Council of India. The students went on satyagraha demanding relocation in other institutions. The J&K government requested the centre through a letter dated May 17, 2000, to accommodate the 67 students in the existing affiliated colleges in the state. The students of 18 medical and dental colleges all over India including the P C Dental College in Karnataka, Agroha Medical College, Rohtak; and Babu Jagjivan Ram Dental College, Haryana had faced similar problem like PRIME College and the students were accommodated in other affiliated colleges by the central government in the past.

Both the state and central governments had accepted the justified demand of students leading to the enrollment of all the 67 students in as many as 4 different colleges of J&K vide notification No. U.12012/23/99-ME (P) which was dated December 8, 2000. The Medical Council of India had increased the available seats in the medical colleges of the state by 67 to accommodate them. Students started attending their regular classes from then onwards.

At this point the ABVP, student outfit of RSS, unleashed a violent agitation in Jammu region demanding the cancellation of the admission of Kashmiri students. It should be noted that as many as 64 out of 67 students belonged to muslim community, 41 of whom are girls. ABVP-RSS-BJP intensified the agitation seeking resignation of Farooq government along with other issues such as the insufficient electricity supply and inability to control law and order. The issue of trifurcating of the state as Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir on the basis of religion also emerged as a predominant demand from RSS camp. Chief minister Farooq Abdullah got panicky and entered into negotiations with them. He agreed to a compromise formula proposed by RSS camp which basically was that agitation against Farooq Abdullah would be withdrawn if the admissions of these students were cancelled. Farooq thus under pressure wrote to the central government to cancel their admissions. The centre obliged this illegal demand and another order was issued on February 28, 2001, cancelling the earlier order, thus putting the future of the innocent students at peril. All the 67 students lost their admission in government medical colleges though they were duly enrolled, issued identity cards and attended classes for three months.

The harassed students approached Farooq Abdullah. He expressed his helplessness under the circumstances and asked them to get a no objection certificate (NOC) from RSS-BJP-ABVP. Taken aback by this direction, the students approached the prime minister on March 13, 2001. Having heard the case of students, he got convinced about the wrong done to the students and promised to correct it within 2 days. The PM spoke to the union health minister C P Thakur and guided the students to meet him. When the students met the health minister, he too wanted them to obtain an NOC from RSS- BJP –ABVP. He however got convinced about the justified demand of these victimised students and instructed the Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India to grant additional seats to the state of J&K for their smooth re-enrolment. Meanwhile students and their parents got in touch with the RSS-BJP-ABVP leadership in Jammu but received ambiguous response. No NOC is issued even though students have been struggling for justice, shuttling between Jammu and Delhi for as many as 5 months.

The students again met the health minister and he explained to the students that his ministry is in full support of their readmission and then advised them to somehow convince the home minister L K Advani, who stands with ABVP. But Advani has repeatedly refused to meet the students or their parents, thus ruining the future of the hapless students.

While the progressive student organisations like SFI have consistently opposed the capitation fee system, ABVP never opposed the same. Naturally the question arises "why are they opposing the admission of only PRIME students, who got legitimate admission"? Obviously, there was more reason to their opposition than what they proclaimed. The views of students and their parents tallied with the perception of common people in this regard that the opposition to admission of PRIME students does have a communal angle.

What ABVP demands now is that since all the students belong to the valley of Kashmir, until and unless seats are reserved for medical institutions in Jammu region, they shall not allow the 67 students to be readjusted even if their case is legitimate. This demand is part of the larger agenda of RSS of trifurcating Jammu & Kashmir.

Reservation inside a state has never happened anywhere in this country. Even if a policy decision has to be taken on this issue, why should the innocent students be made the scapegoats when they had been made to lose as many as six precious years of their life already? The RSS-ABVP combine states that they won’t oppose the admission if seats are reserved for Jammu region. It means the admission of 67 Kashmiri students was not illegal and it was purely on communal grounds that their enrolment is being opposed by RSS-BJP-ABVP till the date.

The innocent students have become victims of communal hatred. Their future is uncertain and are unable to give their first year MBBS examination till today, though they got admission in 1995. The students are getting over aged and are mentally depressed. The decision of the NDA government to cancel their admission is inhuman and marks gross injustice. It is the duty of all right thinking citizens of the country to support the just agitation of these hapless students and protect their career and life.