A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as a picture of the luxurious hostel building constructed inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for the Jammu and Kashmir students. This post claims that the previous Congress Government has constructed this hostel in 2012. It is also claimed that this hostel provides free accommodation only to the Muslim students coming from the Jammu & Kashmir and does not allow other students from other religions to stay in the hostel. The same photo was sent to our WhatsApp Tipline (+91 92470 52470) number recently making a similar claim. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of a luxurious hostel constructed in JNU specifically for the Muslim students coming from Jammu and Kashmir.
Fact: The photo shared in the post shows the Jammu and Kashmir hostel constructed in the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) in Delhi and not JNU. The criteria for hostel admissions in both JNU and JMI Universities are purely based on merit, not based on religion. Except for the physically challenged students and those whose parent’s annual income is less than 1.5 Lakhs per annum, hostel rent is not exempted for any other students studying at the JMI University. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the photo, the same hostel building photo was found tweeted by the Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party Youth President Waheed Ur Rehman on 30 April 2018. Sharing a collage of photos of the hostel building, Waheed Ur Rehman thanked Mehbooba Mufti and the Home Minister for completing the construction of the much-awaited Jammu and Kashmir hostel at the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University in Delhi. When you observe the hostel building in these photos carefully, you could see the words “J&K Hostel Jamia Millia Islamia” written on the building. So, it can be confirmed that the photo shared in the post shows J&K Hostel constructed at the JMI University and not JNU.
According to the ‘The Hindu’ article published in 2017, Union Minister Rajnath Singh and the then J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti have inaugurated the 400-bed hostel constructed specially for the J&K students at the JMI University. The plan for the hostel was first conceived in 2012 when a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Jamia and the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Manmohan Singh government.
When we searched to check whether the JMI University in Delhi provides free accommodation based on the religion of the students, we found the complete details of the hostel admission procedure in the ‘Hostel Manual’ provided on the Jamia Millia Islamia University website. In the eligibility criteria of the Hostel Manual, JMI did not mention anywhere that only students from the Jammu & Kashmir state will be provided accommodation at the J&K Hostel. The JMI Hostel Manual has clearly stated that the admission to hostels will be exclusively on merit and on the basis specified in the Admission criteria. JMI mentioned that the physically challenged students, and those whose parents ‘ annual income is less than 1.5 Lakhs per annum were exempted from the payment of room rent. Excluding students from this criteria, JMI did not announce free accommodation to any students based on religion or any other reasons.
A list of the provisionally selected candidates for the J&K Hostel, during the academic session 2018-19, can be seen here. We could see a few Hindu names also in this list. Even in the JNU ‘Hostel Manual’, it is clearly stated that the admissions to the hostel are provided in accordance with the merit secured in the entrance examination held by the University. A few news websites published articles in 2020 reporting this false message circulating on social media.
To sum it up, both JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia Universities in Delhi do not offer free hostel accommodation to Jammu and Kashmir Students.
