Mehbooba Mufti asks locals to treat outstation students well

In an apparent reference to the unrest in NIT, Srinagar, incident, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday asked students in the state to be hospitable towards outstation pupils and make them feel at home so that Kashmiris studying in other parts of the country get the same treatment.

"Let's make them (outstation students) feel at home and when they go back, they go back as our goodwill ambassadors and talk about our hospitality and our behaviour so that our students, who are in lakhs in other parts of the country, get the same kind of treatment", she said.

Invoking "Atithi Devo Bhava", Mehbooba said the mixing of cultures and religious diversity symbolises the heart and soul of the country which is secularism and brotherhood.

"I am sure they will talk about our hospitality and good behaviour and make our children studying in the rest of the country part of their extended families," she said at the convocation ceremony of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board University (SMVSB) here.

The function was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra and Union and state ministers among others.

"The multi-culture audience such universities are opened to only reaffirm our belief that institutes can be a melting pot of culture, ethnicity where people of all states and culture can converge and indulge in dialogue and inter-culture interaction", she said.

Mehbooba said Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University was borne out of a concept to seek faith as a trust repository for common people and it is no coincidence that the university was established again during her father late former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's time.

"I am glad to see the university come up as a role model for institute of excellence leading the way in showing how religious endowment can be professionally used for the good of the society and the hospital that the Prime Minister inaugurated today is one of the example," she said.