Jehangir Ali 
Srinagar: Ruling National Conference Member of Parliament Aga Ruhullah Mehdi today (December 23) led hundreds of students and parents who braved the intense cold to call for an end to a reservation policy which has triggered widespread anger in Jammu and Kashmir.
The protest, which was held outside the NC president Farooq Abdullah and J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah’s residence on the upscale Gupkar Road in Srinagar, was also attended by Peoples Democratic Party leaders Iltija Mufti and Waheed Parra, and Awami Ittehad Party legislator Sheikh Khursheed.
Addressing the students, Ruhullah, who had raised the issue in the recent session of the parliament, urged the government to either rationalise the existing reservation policy in J&K in line with the population of various reserved categories, or to adopt the Supreme Court’s cap of 50% reservation for Open Merit quota.
“Since 2019, the voices of Kashmiris have been choked by branding them as anti-nationals or agents of Pakistan. But people have voted (in assembly elections) to elect a government which can deliver on their aspirations. This injustice has to end,” he said, evoking slogans from the students who had gathered in hundreds despite the severe cold.
‘Since 2019, the voices of Kashmiris have been choked by branding them as anti-nationals or agents of Pakistan’. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar.
Reservation rules ‘killing merit’
Earlier this month, the Abdullah government announced the formation of a cabinet sub-committee that has been tasked to “examine the grievances projected by a section of aspirants for various posts regarding Reservation Rules, in consultation with all stakeholders”.
However, while the order was aimed to calm the anger among youngsters in Jammu and Kashmir, the lack of a deadline for the committee to submit its recommendations has aggravated the situation. Ruhullah urged the government to come out with a time-bound resolution of the issue.
Shahid Ahmad Sheikh, a final year student of MBBS at Government Medical College (GMC) in Srinagar, said that the reservation policy, which was rolled out by the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Union government after the reading down of Article 370 in 2019, had led to “unfair” distribution of seats.
Also read: J&K Govt Forms Panel to Reassess Reservation Policy Introduced by BJP
Under the reservation policy, the ’Open Merit’ or OM quota has been reduced to 40% or even less, in what activists argued was brazen disregard to the Supreme Court guidelines, which has capped the OM quota at 50%.
“This year only 29% of seats were filled by students from the open merit category while the rest were distributed among the reserved categories. This favouritism will have dangerous consequences on the quality of healthcare in Jammu and Kashmir in coming years,” he said.
‘This favouritism will have dangerous consequences’. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar.
Faheesa, a second year MBBS student at GMC Srinagar, said that the government should stop “killing merit”.
“The reservation policy favours the reserved categories. If the government doesn’t listen to our grievances, we will intensify the agitation,” she said.
‘Not politics’
Holding the placards like ‘Justice for Open Merit’ and ‘Eradicate Draconian Rule 17’, hundreds of students and parents raised slogans against the reservation policy outside the residence of Abdullahs.
PDP leader and member of legislative assembly from Pulwama, Waheed Parra, said that his party was going to stand with the students on the issue, “I am not here to do politics. It is an important issue which affects all the sections of society in Jammu and Kashmir. The government should come out with a time-bound resolution of the issue,” he said.
The anger against the reservation policy in the higher educational institutions and government departments of the Union territory gained momentum after the Omar Abdullah government was sworn into office in October this year.
The policy has been challenged by some aggrieved petitioners in J&K high court who have termed it as “unreasonable and illogical”. “This issue is not against any specific community or class. It is about upholding the constitution and the rule of law,” a petition in the court noted.
‘The policy has been widely dubbed as political appeasement by the saffron party’. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar.
A review promise
Ahead of the assembly election, Abdullah’s party had promised to review the policy, “The reservation policy will be reviewed and any injustice and imbalance will be corrected,” the NC’s 2024 assembly election manifesto, which was released on August 19 this year, stated.
After J&K was downgraded and bifurcated into two Union territories, the reservation policy of the erstwhile state was tweaked by the Union government with the inclusion of Paharis and other communities in Scheduled Caste and other reserved categories.
The policy has been widely dubbed as political appeasement by the saffron party in order to consolidate its vote bank in J&K’s ‘pasmanda’ communities which are economically backward.
Ruhullah, who was a member of the manifesto committee, had vowed to protest against the UT government if it did not amend the lopsided reservation policy by December 22.
Taking to X, chief minister Abdullah said that the sub-committee was “only recently notified” and the issue “has not been ignored or swept under the carpet”.
“Your government is doing what any responsible government would do – making sure everyone is heard & a fair decision arrived at after completing due process,” he said.
Chief minister Abdullah later met the protesting students and assured them that the subcommittee will be asked to file its report in six months,
“The government has promised that an order fixing the deadline for the subcommittee will be issued soon,” said Sahil Parray, a student activist.
Some representatives of the moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who called for “justice and fairness” in a post on X, also took part in the protest against the reservation policy.