That the test is against social justice is a fallacy
Tension is brewing between Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK and state Governor over the latter not forwarding the Tamil Nadu Admission Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill 2021, passed by the Legislative Assembly, for consideration of the President. The bill seeks to bypass the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical students in Tamil Nadu by allowing admissions to be made based on marks obtained by students in Class XII or Plus Two. All parties, except the BJP, support the Bill. As it attempts to bypass a Central law, the Bill needs Presidential assent to come into force. Now as the state governor has not acted on the legislation sent to him, the state government has put pressure on him. Various DMK MPs tried to meet the President of India but in vain. They had to satisfy themselves by submitting a memorandum to the President’s office. Their meeting with the Union Home Minister also did not materialise. A meeting of all the legislature parties chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was conducted on January 8 to take necessary legal steps to abolish NEET. The meeting decided to take other state governments into confidence and put up a collective fight against NEET. Senior BJP leader and MLA Vanathi Srinivasan righty denied the contention of the Dravidian parties that NEET for medical admissions was against the principles of social justice and the reservation policy followed in Tamil Nadu. When all the reservations applicable for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class, etc., are intact even after NEET system, how is it against any social justice? Hence, the contention that NEET affects social justice is a blatant lie.
The Constitution backs the governor who”shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the Bill for the consideration of the President.” When it is not a Money bill there is no compulsion for him to return the bill immediately. Even if the said bill is sent to the President, the Central Government in all likelihood may not agree for giving consent for the legislation of the Tamil Nadu Government due to the following factors. First, the TN legislation is against the Central Government Act and any tinkering will amount to violation of aSupreme Court ruling. Secondly, among all the states in India, only Tamil Nadu is against NEET and there is no political compulsion for Centre to side with the TN government. Thirdly, the ruling dispensation in TN is politically against BJP at the Centre and there is no need for BJP to help DMK to fulfil its election promise. Fourthly, even when BJP’s alliance partner AIADMK was in power in TN, the BJP government was not inclined to remove NEET. When the GO issued by the TN Government for admission to academic year 2017-18, it was contested by the students from CBSE stream. While delivering the judgement the following comments were made by the judge: “The case as projected by the Government by treating the students from the CBSE Board undoubtedly indicates the mind of the State Government that they want to look at those students as though they do not belong to this State.” It seems still the present state government has not learnt any lesson from the above observation. More number of students from Tamil Nadu have cleared NEET this year. Among the top 50,000 national rank holders, the number of TN students has increased to 2874 this year, as against 2747 last year. Hence there is no truth in the statement that TN students cannot pursue medical education due to introduction of NEET.
(The writer is a retired banker. The views expressed are personal.)