The CPI(M) joined forces with the other Opposition parties, urging the Union government to defer IIT-JEE and NEET that are scheduled for next month.
“What is most outrageous is the insensitivity to hold these examinations in the physical mode across the country at a time when the pandemic is surging both in the number of infections, as well as, the mounting counts of deaths,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement here.
Chief Ministers of seven Opposition ruled-States, at a virtual meeting, on Wednesday, decided to file a joint review petition in the Supreme Court against holding the two examinations at present. The meeting, organised by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, attended by Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee, Udhav Thackeray, Hemant Soren, Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gehlot and Captain Amarinder Singh. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was not invited for the meet on the insistence of the Congress’s Kerala unit.
The Polit Bureau said the concern over starting the academic session in these institutions for the sake of the future of the students and those courses was valid and understandable. But it was “grossly premature” to hold it at the moment. “It completely undermines the health concern for almost a million of some of the brightest of our youth,” the statement said.
