NEET Politics: Now, Stalin Pinning Hopes On Allies From Non-BJP States

The DMK boss Stalin is caught between a rock and a hard place as he joins the battle against the national common medical and dental entrance test. Having upbraided the AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa for years about The National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the student suicides it has triggered in the state as students fall short against the challenge of multiple-choice tests, DMK took a stand before the polls that it would abolish NEET the day it came into office. It isn’t quite that simple as this is a national test now and outside the ambit of the State list which has Education but the Concurrent list rules medical studies. Stalin has tried everything, from a retired judge-headed committee to study the invidious test that beats rural and State Board students to counselling sessions and yet another resolution in the Assembly to exempt Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court has, however, ruled that NEET should prevail and the President had twice sent back legislation from TN on the subject in 2017. The TN Chief Minister MK Stalin is hoping other non-BJP states would pick up on its stand on the test that has excluded the rural and urban poor while it hasn’t stopped the elite rich from buying private medical college seats. The suicide rate is stinging the state but right now it is a lone fighter against NEET.