India, Jan. 13 -- The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME), located in the foothills of the revered shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi at Katra, has been dragged into a controversy that was seemingly avoidable. The barely six-month-old medical college has suddenly been sought to be made an instrument of communal polarisation.

The controversy has erupted at a time when Jammu and Kashmir is struggling on all fronts to come to terms with the fallout of the August 5, 2019 constitutional changes, which by and large have not augured well either for Jammu and Kashmir or for the UT of Ladakh, as reflected in subsequent developments. It is rare that a controversy over the selection of candidates-done in this case by a central...