PMK youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss has accused the ruling AIADMK (Amma) of doing little to obtain Presidential assent for two Bills that exempt students seeking admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses from taking NEET.
Mr. Anbumani, who observed a day-long fast here on Friday protesting against the NEET, charged that the Chief Minister had failed to deal with the issue effectively.
“In the last six months alone, the State government has ceded a number of Tamil Nadu’s rights to the Centre. With over 30 MPs in the Lok Sabha, they should have stalled the proceedings in Parliament and demanded that Tamil Nadu be exempted from the NEET. If the PMK had 10 MPs, we would have made a greater impact in Parliament,” he said.
Last year, while 3,000 students from Tamil Nadu’s State Board schools got into medical colleges out of 3,400 students, the situation is going to be the reverse in 2017. “My estimate is that 3,000 of the 3,377 seats will be bagged by students studying in CBSE schools,” he said.
Arguing that a qualifying exam was not necessary to improve the state of medical education, Mr. Anbumani said that increasing the minimum marks required to join the course could be the answer. “Currently, it stands at 60%. If it is raised to 90%, there is no need for NEET,” he said.
Targets BJP
While Mr. Anbumani launched a scathing criticism against the Centre for trying to “impose homogeneity” across the nation — be it language, religion, food, tax and education, he didn’t rule out any future alliance with the BJP. “The Bharatiya Janata Party wants to get rid of pluralism in our country. We are facing a very piquant situation right now. We had an arrangement with them (BJP) in 2014, but we have been their fiercest critic on the Cauvery and NEET issues. However, we want to end the rule of Dravidian parties, and will be open to working with other parties,” he said.
