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Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi stated emphatically on Saturday that he will never pass the state government’s anti-NEET law, which is currently pending the President’s approval, eliciting a furious response from the governing DMK and its ally CPI. The guy who asked the Governor a question on NEET during an encounter at the Raj Bhavan stated that TN has been against it for the last five to six years and that students were unable to cope with it. Ravi stated that achievements without the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) were not adequate for the future during a conversation with top NEET scores in UG-2023 as part of the ‘Dare to Think Series’. He insisted that the qualifying test was here to stay.
“Look, I will never, ever be the one to provide clearance. My goal is to prevent my kids from experiencing intellectual disability. I want our kids to compete and do their very best. They’ve demonstrated it, he said. His unequivocal reaction was in response to a parent who asked for the governor’s “clearance to ban NEET,” a clear allusion to his support of TN Assembly proposals that sought to exclude the state from the central exam’s purview.
“I’ll never give NEET (bill) approval, I’m telling you straight out. Make it abundantly obvious. However, it has been sent to the President since it is a Concurrent List issue, meaning that only the President has the authority to provide clearance. He claimed that while maintaining that the CBSE syllabus was the “standard,” a fiction was being spread that claimed that only those who utilised the services of coaching institutes could pass the medical entrance test.
Nothing more than what is provided in the CBSE book should be used. Without going to coaching institutes, I’ve witnessed a lot of kids pass it with flying colours. The book that has been recommended is the CBSE book, which is a must. Don’t hold the standard accountable if it is lower than that. Try to lift the bar, he urged. According to Ravi, the CBSE standard is a “very good syllabus” that isn’t exceeded by the NEET. “Let there be no mistake, NEET will continue to exist in our nation. I want my kids to be competitive and the greatest in the nation,” he continued.
Following the Governor’s initial rejection, the state Assembly re-adopted a bill last year asking for Tamil Nadu’s exemption from the NEET. According to a different tweet from the Raj Bhavan, “Governor Ravi said the success story of NEET achievers will inspire others and dispel the artificially created fear against NEET in our State in his address at the NEET achievers felicitation function at Raj Bhavan’s Bharathiar Mandapam.” Both the current ruling DMK and the outgoing AIADMK governments in Tamil Nadu adopted Assembly measures requesting that the state be excused from NEET’s scope.
Several medical aspirants are said to have committed suicide as a result of either failing the test or having excessive anxiety about failing it, giving NEET emotional overtones in the state. TN has opposed NEET, according to Ammasiyappan Ramasamy, who asked Ravi the issue during the session. He referred to the purported NEET-related suicides in the state and questioned if the kids actually had to put in 15 hours per day to study for and pass the entrance exam. He asserted that parents shell out a lot of money for coaching.
R Rajiv Gandhi, the head of the DMK Students Wing and the party spokesperson, sharply refuted Ravi’s assertion and denounced his “arrogant” demeanour. He tweeted, “News reports will come in another 10 months saying that former Governor R N Ravi opined (on some issue),” implying that the governor will be replaced during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Let your haughtiness last till then, he urged. In relation to the NEET problem, DMK ally CPI also criticised Ravi. The party claimed Ravi’s “arrogant” remark, which went against democratic principles, amounted to “intimidating parents.”
It added in a statement that democratic forces must band together and intensify their fight in order to stop the Governor’s illegal conduct. The CPI claimed that he was acting in a “authoritarian” manner and not following the recommendations of the Assembly, Cabinet, and Chief Minister. The Governor has previously faced harsh criticism for returning Assembly bills to the government from the DMK-led coalition in power as well as from many other places.
NEET is one of the topics that the Raj Bhavan and the Tamil Nadu government have clashed about.