DMK should stop pathetic politics over NEET exams in Tamil Nadu: Annamalai

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief K Annamalai on Thursday hit out at the ruling DMK party in the state, saying it should stop the 'pathetic politics' over the ongoing National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) examination issue in the state.

In his post on X, Annamalai shared a video of Virugambakkam's MLA Prabhakar Raja, wherein the latter can be seen purportedly asking the students of a school to sign a memorandum while making disparaging remarks against Prime Minister Modi and his government.

"The desperation of DMK to legitimise their anti-NEET propaganda has let them into govt schools now. TN CM Thiru @mkstalin should understand that schools are not his political stage to advance his son's nonsensical programmes. DMK MLA Prabhakar Raja enters a classroom uninvited & says NEET had led to Suicide in front of students who might grow to become Doctors tomorrow," Annamalai said, further asking why the DMK government is planting the idea of suicide in the minds of young children.

The desperation of DMK to legitimise their anti-NEET propaganda has let them into govt schools now. TN CM Thiru @mkstalin should understand that schools are not his political stage to advance his son’s nonsensical programmes.

DMK MLA Prabhakar Raja enters a classroom uninvited… pic.twitter.com/b7PhoftNGC

— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) October 26, 2023

He additionally asserted that the NEET has posed obstacles for the DMK in engaging in the practice of trading merit lists with private medical colleges in return for donations.

"Despite such barriers, DMK MP was caught by the IT department for generating fake receipts to the tune of Rs400 Crores in the medical college run by him," the BJP leader added. He also challenged the DMK government to substantiate its claims that NEET is detrimental to the economically disadvantaged, undermines merit, and works against social justice.

"DMK should stop this pathetic politics & instead prove to the people of TN that NEET is Anti-Poor, Anti-Merit, and Anti-Social Justice, which it is NOT!" he said.

Notably, in February last year, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted the anti-NEET bill for the second time after the Governor returned it earlier. Moreover, later, the state governor, RN Ravi, referred the bill to the President for approval.

CM Stalin had earlier written to the Chief Ministers' of 12 states, seeking the shifting of education to the state list from the current concurrent list in order to put an end to the NEET examination. Earlier on Saturday, October 21, 2023, Tamil Nadu Sports Minister and DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin participated in a 'signature campaign' against the NEET examination in Chennai.

Speaking on occasion, the DMK leader said that the party plans to get lakhs of signatures in 50 days against the NEET examination adding that after getting signatures in this campaign, CM Stalin will write to the President explaining once again our stand against NEET.

During the signature campaign, Udhyanidhi said, "So far 22 lives have been lost due to NEET. Not only in Tamil Nadu, (but) in India (cases of) suicides are continuing. We have to put a full stop to this. So only (for this) we started this signature campaign. "The exemption of NEET from the state has been a long-pending demand of Tamil Nadu.