Surinder goes to college every morning, but returns home before noon without attending his classes. For his classmates too, the routine has been the same for over a month. Students in government degree colleges in Jammu have called a boycott to put pressure on the Omar Abdullah-led government to set up the proposed central university for the state in Jammu, and not Kashmir. A year after the Amarnath land row, the bitter divide between the two regions of the state is again to the fore, and again the BJP is cashing in to recoup some of its recent electoral losses in Jammu.

Having ridden the Amarnath wave to 11 seats in the 2008 Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP has seen its stock fall since. In the Lok Sabha elections that followed months later, it lost to the Congress in both the Lok Sabha seats in Jammu.

The current row is over a central university that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to Jammu during a visit in 2007. The state government has since then identified six sites for the university — three each in Jammu and Kashmir. However, while the Union HRD Ministry insists it is yet to take a final decision on the matter, Jammu saw foul in the recent move of the university’s newly appointed Vice-Chancellor, Prof Abdul Wahid, to set up an office in the Valley.

Angry students called a boycott of classes in government degree colleges, and haven't budged despite repeated assurances from the state government, including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, that the state could have two central universities — one each in Jammu and the Valley. The VC has since opened an office of the university in Jammu too, but the agitators are determined that Jammu alone that should get the varsity instead of sharing the honour with “privileged” Kashmir.

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