NEET: A complex story of growing opposition in Tamil Nadu

The malpractices and irregularities in the conduct of NEET have provided the state government and major political parties an opportunity to argue for scrapping NEET altogether, but the political reasons are complex

Issues relating to caste, class, minority community rights, and regional autonomy have coalesced in Tamil Nadu into opposition to the NEET, the entrance examination for admission to medical colleges.

The malpractices and irregularities in the conduct of NEET have provided the state government and major political parties an opportunity to argue for scrapping NEET altogether, but the political reasons are complex. Rural students from state board schools and low-income households without access to coaching institutes have been the worst sufferers of the centralised exam.

Students listed under the Scheduled Caste category see this as another barrier. Minority institutions consider it as running counter to their mandate of accommodating minority community students. Successive state governments view it as another encroachment by the Centre into domains that were under states.

The Tamil Nadu government on June 28 passed a resolution unanimously urging the Union government to “immediately” approve Tamil Nadu's NEET exemption bill and also make necessary amendments to the National Medical Commission Act so that  NEET is abolished at the national level. Chief Minister MK Stalin moved the resolution and except for BJP MLAs, who walked out, all other MLAs supported it, including BJP ally PMK.

Stalin pointed out that it was after the consensus among the people of Tamil Nadu, political leaders, and intellectuals and based on the recommendations of the retired judge Justice AK Rajan the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Courses Act, 2021, was passed in the Assembly in September 2021. But Governor RN Ravi did not approve the Bill and returned it for reconsideration.

After an all-party meeting, the Bill was again passed in the Tamil Assembly in February 2022. The Governor sent the Bill to the union government for approval from the President.

“Despite the Tamil Nadu government providing timely and appropriate responses to all clarifications requested by the Union government, the approval to the Bill is still being delayed,” Stalin stated while moving the resolution.

He contended that Tamil Nadu had fought NEET alone from the beginning. But after the malpractices were exposed, other opposition leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, began to oppose NEET.

Tamil Nadu has a long history of opposition to entrance tests to professional colleges. Ironically, former chief ministers J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi, political rivals, were on the same side on this issue: against entrance tests. The AIADMK founder, MG Ramachandran (MGR), as the state Chief Minister, had for the first time introduced the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE) in 1984-85 following complaints of favouritism and corruption in face-to-face interviews. This was opposed by the DMK, but TNPCEE continued. In 1997 a single window system was introduced by Anna University.

In 2005, Jayalalithaa announced there would be no more entrance examinations. Her government lost the legal battles. Beginning of next year she said state board students alone need not write entrance tests. But that too did not pass legal scrutiny. Later that year, based on an expert committee, under Anandakrishnan, report, which recommended admissions solely based on XII standard marks, the Karunanidhi government, which came back to power, passed legislation doing away with entrance examinations. It received the President's assent and was upheld by the judiciary. Anandakrishnan argued in his report that entrance tests were a burden on students and parents in poor and rural families as most of them were from Tamil medium.

Now, there is a political consensus against NEET among major parties barring the BJP. Students are also against what they see as one more hurdle. One of the state board toppers, Anita, who came under the SC category, committed suicide in 2017, further fuelling opposition to NEET in the state.