After the passing of a resolution against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the DMK held a protest in Chennai on Wednesday to express their discontent over the NEET-UG issue. The protest was spurred by the recent paper leak in the NEET-UG 2024 examination and the abrupt postponement of the NEET-PG 2024 examination.
The protest in Chennai saw DMK workers voicing their concerns and demanding changes to the NEET exam policies. The dissatisfaction with NEET has been a longstanding issue in Tamil Nadu, with arguments that the exam disadvantages students from state education boards and rural backgrounds.
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Ahead of the protest, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said, "The entire country has now woken up to the evil called NEET. Some of them were sceptical when DMK, from its inception of NEET, opposed it. They said, why oppose an examination which will bring out the merit of the students? So many people got carried away by it."
"But DMK we knew how it would affect social justice, how it would be disadvantageous to the oppressed class of the society...The entire country understood that the BJP government is incapable and is incompetent to conduct an examination in the magnitude of NEET," he said.
Meanwhile, the resolution was introduced by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, who addressed the assembly amid significant uproar concerning NEET, according to a report on PTI. The resolution received backing from several regional parties, including Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
In the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, DMK MP P Wilson called on the central government to either abolish the NEET exam altogether or to pass Tamil Nadu’s NEET exemption bill, which would exclude the state from the national competitive exam.