A not-so-NEET poll promise has come back to trouble DMK

In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly election, the DMK not only promised to abolish the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in Tamil Nadu if it was voted to power, it made the issue the centerpiece of its poll campaign.

When it was pointed out that a similar attempt by the AIADMK government in 2017 had failed, the DMK, then Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition party, contended that there were “several avenues” within the Constitution to realise its promise of abolishing NEET, which it said discriminates against rural students.

However, nine months into power, the DMK, now firmly in the saddle, is facing the heat on the NEET issue. Soon after coming to power, the DMK government appointed a committee headed by retired Justice A K Rajan to study the issue.

Also Read | Tamil Nadu Governor returns NEET Bill; DMK demands his recall

It then passed a “legally sound” legislation in the Assembly seeking exemption for the state from the national exam, relying heavily on the committee’s report. The AIADMK, the principal opposition party, supported the move.

Though passed by the Assembly on September 13, 2021, the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act, 2021, was pending before Governor R N Ravi for five months. On February 3, Raj Bhavan said the Governor had returned the Bill to the Assembly Speaker with “detailed reasons”.

Former Chief Minister E K Palaniswami, who introduced a 7.5% quota for government school students in medical admissions, is asking the DMK to explain why the exam has not been abolished in the state as promised during elections.

The AIADMK’s ally, BJP, has taken a different stand, saying that the government should drop the demand and prepare students for NEET.

Even before he returned the Bill, the DMK had been training its guns on the Governor, demanding his resignation for “sitting on it” for five months instead of sending it to President Ram Nath Kovind for approval. The problems of the DMK vis-à-vis NEET have only compounded with the Governor returning the Bill on the grounds that it would affect rural students, almost toeing the BJP line.

‘Fight will continue’

The DMK’s attack on Governor Ravi will only sharpen now. Already, the party’s mouthpiece, Murasoli, had criticised Ravi for his statement that depriving students in Tamil Nadu of the knowledge of “other Indian languages was unfair to all.”

The DMK, which declared an all-out war against the Governor by asking him to remember that “this is Tamil Nadu, not Nagaland”, says the “legal and political fight” against NEET will continue.

The issue also had its echo in Parliament on the first day of the Budget Session, with MPs from DMK and Congress raising the issue, faulting the Governor. On February 2, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also spoke about Tamil Nadu’s consistent opposition to NEET and the Centre not paying heed to its demand.

Dismissing suggestions that the DMK “misled” students, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the M K Stalin government has been “exerting pressure” on the Union government to get the Bill passed by the Assembly ratified.

He added that “no government” had made such an effort in the past to get the exam scrapped, recalling Chief Minister M K Stalin’s repeated appeals to the Governor to ratify the Bill.

“The legal and political fight to get NEET scrapped will continue. The goal of the government is to ensure that the exam is not held in Tamil Nadu and that students are enrolled in medical colleges based on their plus-two marks.

There is no confusion among students as we have not asked them not to prepare for the exam. We are preparing them even as we fight,” he told DH.

Countering this, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai blamed the state board syllabus for the “declining standards” of students studying in government schools.

“We are slowly ceding space to other South Indian states as per various surveys, which is unacceptable. So, NEET is absolutely necessary for the state,” he told DH.

“If one looks at the numbers in 2020, 2021, and 2022, students from the state have performed much better in the NEET exam and this has resulted in real social justice, wherein several students from rural areas have got admission in medical colleges with or without the 7.5% quota,” he added.

Annamalai blamed the Justice Rajan report for “extrapolating the numbers” and “hiding the rot” within the state syllabus. “NEET ticks all the parameters and that is why we want the exam to stay,” he said.

NEET has been an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu since it was first held in the state in 2017. At least a dozen students have ended lives, either due to fear of the exam or after being unable to clear it.

‘Be pragmatic’

Prof Ramu Manivannan, former Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras, said the fight to get an exemption for NEET is “political” and suggested that the DMK open up “new spaces” and reach out to political parties across the country.

“It (the exemption) is not a mango that will fall into the DMK’s lap on its own. The DMK has to mobilise strength if it is
serious about implementing the promise, because the BJP will continue to isolate the party nationally on this issue. The DMK has to touch the common ground with the rest of the nation,” he said.

However, senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh opined that while blaming the Governor and the Centre is the
“political escape route”, the “pragmatic solution” before the government is to prepare the students for such exams
by opening up training centres in rural areas.

“It (NEET exemption) is not an implementable poll promise. Stalin should upgrade the state syllabus and help rural students prepare to face NEET and other exams,” he told DH.