Chennai: Waging a lonely battle against the Dravidian political establishment, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi opened yet another war front justifying the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical programmes. While there is a bipartisan political consensus in Tamil Nadu against NEET, the Governor batting for it has put him at the receiving end.
“Never, ever. Look, I will be the last man to give it clearance. I do not want my children to feel intellectually disabled. I want our children to compete and beat the best. They have proved it,” the Governor said during a felicitation for NEET toppers at the Raj Bhavan here. Using the occasion to justify NEET, he made it clear that the national-level test was here to stay and the propaganda against it was the handiwork of vested interests, particularly the private medical colleges' lobby.
“I am telling you very frankly, I will never give clearance to NEET. Let it be very clear. Anyway, it has gone to the President. It is a subject of the Concurrent list (of the Constitution) and only the President is competent to give clearance. But, given to me, I will never give it clearance,” was his response to a parent from Salem, who asked when the Bill would get clearance. Further, Ravi went on claiming that only post-NEET, nearly 600 government school students have joined the MBBS, which according to him was not even double digits earlier.
The parent, Ammasiappan of Salem Steel Plant, who pleaded for expeditious clearance for the NEET Bill, said “Even prior to NEET Tamil Nadu had produced doctors, who have excelled in their field and the healthcare system is the best in the country. Tamil Nadu has a very good education system. Your excellency, too, had admitted to this in your address. Many parents from the poorer sections are unable to afford to send their children for NEET coaching.” Responding to him further, Raviu said, “What we have achieved is not enough. There are many students doing it without coaching. The schools are doing it. Teachers have to do it.”
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Venting his ire at the anti-NEET campaign, the Governor said, “Private medical colleges are run by people with money and influence. They are the people charging crores of rupees as a capitation fee. People with less qualifications, paying more money are getting admissions. It is a Rs 1,000 crore business. If I have a college with 50 seats, it will be Rs 150 crore a year since Rs 1 crore used to be the minimum. NEET has reduced corruption. Anti-NEET propaganda is by vested interests. It was this lobby, this powerful lobby, which created all the havoc that students are committing suicides. Our children are victims of wrong propaganda. I have not heard much news in the last year.” Further, stating that the CBSE syllabus was enough for cracking NEET, he emphasised the need to upgrade the state syllabus rather than blaming NEET.
The Governor's rationale has failed to cut much ice with the political establishment. Both the ruling DMK and opposition AIADMK are on the same page in opposing NEET. A prime charge of anti-NEET campaigners is that the national-level test failed to rein in private and self-financing medical colleges. The DMK has come down heavily on the Governor accusing him of 'insulting the Tamil people'. “Governor Ravi, who does not respect the Constitution is a stooge of the RSS and is bringing disrepute to his high office. It is his duty to function as per the Constitution and not according to his whims and fancies. He should remember that he is not elected by the people of the state but an appointee of the Union Government. What he says is an insult to the Tamil Nadu legislature,” fumes TKS Elangovan, spokesperson of the DMK.
Going a step further, Congress Legislature Party leader K Selva Perunthagai urged Chief Minister MK Stalin to convene a session of the Assembly and pass a resolution for the Governor's recall. “The continued conduct of the Governor is in violation of constitutional norms and against the dignity of the legislature as well as the elected government,” he said in a statement.
