On Monday, the Tamil Nadu Assembly reiterated the killing of a medical adherent who was terrified the results of the National Entry-Cum-Eligibility Test that he was to take, with the main opposition AIADMK attacking the government and Chief Minister M K Stalin introducing a Bill to do away with NEET and allow admission to medical courses based on Class 12 marks.
As soon as the House was seated, Leader of the Opposition K Palaniswami brought up the suicide death of 19-year-old Dhanush in his home Salem district on Sunday, blaming the administration. He said that despite the DMK’s vow to “abolish” NEET, it had not been done and that some students had not prepared adequately. Speaker M Appavu removed some of his comments.
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Aside from monetary support, he looked for a job for a member of the family. MLAs from the opposition party, who wore black badges to the House, staged a walkout headed by Mr. Palaniswami. Dhanush, a 19-year-old from a village near Salem, committed suicide on Sunday, hours before appearing for the third time for NEET, fearing the outcome of the test he was to take. The event caused the AIADMK to accuse the DMK administration and the state government to blame the Centre.
NEET was first held in Tamil Nadu when Mr. Palaniswami was Chief Minister, and it was not held even while late J Jayalalithaa was the CM, according to Chief Minister Stalin. He recalled the recent suicides of students, including S Anita, and claimed they all occurred when Mr. Palaniswami was Chief Minister.
When the AIADMK was in power, Dhanush, the student who went the extreme measure, could not pass the exam twice. Mr. Stalin also went after the AIADMK for rejecting bills passed during its rule in 2017 that would have exempted the state from NEET’s reach and withholding it from the House.
Read also: SC Turns Down Plea to Postpone NEET
Mr. Stalin proposed the Bill and urged everyone to embrace it in the name of social justice, implying that this move would be very different from what had been done previously during the AIADMK administration. The bill lets students apply for UG programs in medicine, dentistry, Indian medicine, and homeopathy based on their qualifying test scores.
