Chennai: The death of a 21-year-old NEET aspirant near Chennai on Saturday has sparked off a political tussle between the ruling DMK and the AIADMK that is in the opposition in the state of Tamil Nadu.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said that Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin has blood on his hands for betraying the people of the state for political gains. Both the AIADMK and the DMK are against NEET.
In 2021, the Tamil Nadu Assembly had even adopted a resolution against NEET. However, nothing came of it. The proposal was to discontinue admissions to undergraduate courses in medicine through NEET and return to the old method. Before the introduction of NEET – a nationwide common admission test – Tamil Nadu used to admit students to its medical colleges on the basis of Class-XII marks.
Both the DMK and the AIADMK have been claiming that NEET favours candidates from affluent backgrounds, who can spend a lot on coaching. This creates an uneven playing field, the parties have maintained.
On Saturday, 21-year-old Devadharshini – daughter of a baker – died by suicide at their home in Kilambakkam, about 40 km from Chennai. She was to appear for NEET in May. This was to be her fifth attempt and she had expressed her apprehension regarding yet another failure to her parents. They had done their best to comfort her.
At least 20 NEET aspirants in Tamil Nadu have taken their own lives over the last eight years. Palaniswami took to ‘X’ on Sunday to hit out at Stalin.
“he DMK lied and deceived students by saying there would be no NEET in Tamil Nadu if it came to power. Are the continuing deaths because of NEET not a cause for concern for the DMK?” Palaniswami wrote in Tamil.
“How are you going to wipe away the bloodstains that keep accumulating on your hands from the big lie you told for electoral gains,” he asked.
