DMK Ups Demand for NEET Abolition

Chennai: Revving up its long term demand for the abolition of NEET in the State, the ruling DMK on Wednesday said that the opposition to NEET had now become an "all-India issue" and exuded confidence on seeing a ‘good result’ soon.

The DMK's students' wing organized the protest near Valluvar Kottam to press for the party’s demand on NEET though the opposition AIADMK and BJP accused the ruling party of ‘misleading people’ and enacting a ‘drama through the agitation.

Coming up days after the State Assembly passed yet another resolution, seeking NEET exemption to the state, the agitation was titled "No More NEET." The protestors, who were dressed in black, were led by the Students Wing Secretary and Kancheepuram MLA, CVMP Ezhilarasan with DMK Organisation Secretary R S Bharathi addressing the protesters.

In his address, Bharathi said the DMK had been opposing NEET ever since it was introduced and that it could not "enter into Tamil Nadu" during the days of late party president and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. So was the case when late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa ruled the state.

All the people had started realising that DMK's decision to oppose NEET was the right one and now all political parties were talking about it including Vijay, who has also voluntarily extended support to DMK’s resolution, he said.

However, the AIADMK criticized the DMK over NEET and said the party was resorting to such protests to "mislead" people from issues like the recent Kallakurichi hooch tragedy and "deteriorating law and order."

The BJP, too, called it a ‘fraud’ protest aimed at misleading people from key issues in the state, AIADMK leader D Jayakumar said.

BJP state president K Annamalai said the DMK was enacting a 'drama' on NEET and that the BJP has pointed out many "shortcomings" in the report of Justice A K Rajan Committee, appointed by the DMK government.

Post-NEET, steps had been implemented, based on the BJP-led Union Government’s recommendations, to increase the intake of rural and government school students in government

medical colleges.

The committee set up by the DMK government was "not providing details on (enrollment of) government school students in government medical colleges" before NEET, despite the Union Government seeking it repeatedly.

"What is the mystery behind the DMK enacting an anti-NEET drama in the absence of complete details in the committee report," he said in a post on 'X.'

He asked if the DMK was afraid of the truth that government school students benefited through NEET.