Can NEET exemption be precondition for ties with BJP: Stalin to EPS

Tamil Nadu assembly on Monday witnessed a heated exchange between chief minister MK Stalin and leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami, with the former asking whether the AIADMK was prepared to make National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exemption for the state a precondition for its alliance with the BJP and the latter accusing the DMK government of “betraying” students on the medical entrance test.

The NEET issue came up in the assembly during a debate on the demand for grants for the health department. Taking part in the debate, state transport minister SS Shivashankar alleged that the 11 medical colleges that were established in Tamil Nadu during the AIADMK regime were a quid quo pro for allowing NEET in the state in 2017 when Palaniswami, also known as EPS, was the chief minister.

“Who brought NEET in the first place?” EPS asked, countering the DMK minister. The former CM said it was in 2010 when the DMK was part of the Congress-led UPA-II that NEET was first conceived and later made mandatory by the Supreme Court. He also claimed that senior advocate, the wife of a Congress leader, had argued in favour of NEET, in a veiled reference to former Union finance minister P Chidambaram’s wife Nalini Chidambaram.

At this point, Stalin intervened and told EPS that the AIADMK and BJP forming an alliance has now opened an opportunity. “If we were in alliance with the party in the Centre, we would continue to fight for it. Now you have formed an alliance,” Stalin told EPS. “I want to ask the AIADMK whether it has the guts to say Tamil Nadu should get an exemption from NEET if the party has to ally with the BJP.”

EPS responded by saying that since the issue of NEET is sub-judice, only the Supreme Court could take a decision. The AIADMK leader also criticised the DMK for “cheating students” despite making the abolition of NEET a poll promise in the 2021 assembly elections.

The leader also said there was nothing wrong in the AIADMK allying with the BJP as the DMK had also formed an alliance with the Congress, against which the anti-Hindi agitations originated in the state in the 1960s.

Speaking to reporters later, EPS said Stalin’s remarks shows that he was jittery about the AIADMK-BJP alliance.

The state assembly passed an anti-NEET bill in 2021 and again in 2022 after it was sent back by the governor. The DMK-led government wants the state to be exempted from the centralised entrance exam, a demand supported all parties in the state, except the BJP. It also wants the old practice of class 12 board marks as eligibility for medical admission be restored.