Pakistan, Jan. 16 -- India insists its medical admissions system is blind to religion. The closure of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute (SMVDMI) in Jammu's Reasi district has exposed how fragile that claim becomes once Muslim success disrupts political comfort. What unfolded in early January was not an administrative correction but a surrender-of regulation to street pressure, and of merit to identity.

SMVDMI's first MBBS batch admitted 50 students through India's centralised entrance exam, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. Forty-two were Muslims, most from Kashmir. That demographic outcome triggered weeks of protests by right-wing Hindu groups, who argued that Muslim students had "no business" studying at a college ...