Absence of Urdu, Malayalam from NEET list decried

The Muslim Students Federation-MSF National Committee condemned the attitude of the Union government and demanded that Urdu and Malayalam be included along with other eight languages which has been listed by Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel for the students to take the exam. 

The organisation alleged that they would go on a nation-wide protest if the demand is not met.  Only eight languages- English, Hindi, Marathi, Assami, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu are enlisted in the published list. President of MSF, Ashraf Ali said that the decision of not including certain languages was depriving the students of their rights. The organisation is going forward with the protest by holding a signature campaign. 

Speaking to DTNext, Secretary of Urdu Protection Committee M Muhammad Suhail who is also the Professor of History in Islamia College, Vaniyambadi, said “it is shocking that languages such as Kannada, Malayalam and Urdu are being excluded from the list. In Tamil Nadu, there are five schools which has students following Urdu medium until Class 12. The schools are located in Vellore, Hosur and Ambur areas. The students in these schools are affected by the decision.” 

“It is surprising that Assamese is listed when others are omitted. Assamese is spoken by 1.25 crore which is less compared to Kannada and other regional languages,” he added. According to the 2011 census there are 8 crore people who speak Urdu in India. While in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar Urdu is considered the second official language, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana has a sizeable population of Urdu speaking communities, he said.  

Recently, Minister of State for medical education Girish Mahajan has written a letter to Union health Minister J P Nadda requesting him to include Urdu highlighting that over 11, 000 students in Maharashtra alone study science subject in Urdu medium, he added.  

National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) was mired in controversy with its announcement of conducting a single entrance exam for all medical colleges in the country. The NEET-UG has replaced the All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) and the syllabus of NEET is covered by CBSE but not by other state boards. It invoked stiff reaction from parents and students alike after April 11, when the Supreme Court ordered all medical colleges, including deemed institutions, to take admissions on the basis of NEET. Following this order, even institutions such as AIIMS were no more permitted to conduct private entrance tests.