Once again the debate regarding education and religion has intensified in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir. PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has seriously accused the present government of discriminating against educational institutions on religious grounds. He said that Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) is being continuously and deliberately cut funds. Due to which the university is suffering serious losses.

Baba Ghulam Shah University, located in Rajouri district of Pir Panjal region, was established by the J&K government as a state university in 2002. It was registered by the University Grants Commission and more than 2500 students study in its different faculties. But Mehbooba Mufti warned that the institution was being systematically neglected and pushed towards managed decline. He said that its existence is under serious threat due to systematic reduction in funds given by the UT administration in the last five years.

Mehbooba Mufti said that the one who was considered a light of higher education and a bringer of social and economic change in Pir Panjal, is now being abandoned institutionally. Official data on capital infusion into BGSBU shows an alarming decline in funding over the past few years.

The funding was Rs 562.50 lakh in 2019-20, which increased to Rs 848.43 lakh in 2020-21 and Rs 703.88 lakh in 2021-22. Then it dropped sharply to Rs 422.98 lakh in 2022-23, to Rs 183.11 lakh in 2023-24 and to a shockingly low Rs 44.00 lakh in 2024-25. He said the nominal increase of Rs 187.00 lakh in 2025-26 is too little to repair the damage caused by years of underfunding.

Mehbooba Mufti alleged that these figures show a shocking pattern of neglect. Capital infusion which crossed Rs 700-800 lakh during 2020-22. It has been reduced to just Rs 44 lakh in 2024-25. This is not budget wise. This is a deliberate abandonment of the institutional.

Mehbooba Mufti reminded that BGSBU was established by former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to uplift the historically marginalized and strategically important sector through access to good quality higher education. He said that repeated cuts in funds are continuously hollowing out the academic capacity, research ecosystem and infrastructure of the university. Weakening institutions by ignoring them is as harmful as closing them.

The PDP Chief appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir Government to immediately acknowledge this persistent shortcoming and reverse the trend in the coming budget and warned that continued neglect could cause irreparable damage to one of the most important institutions of Pir Panjal. Mehbooba Mufti, in a post on X, said that BGSBU was established to uplift a backward area. Depriving it of funds is a betrayal of that vision and must be corrected immediately.