MK Stalin has urged the president to sign Tamil Nadu's anti-NEET Bill
The tragic deaths of a 19-year-old and his father by suicide, after the teen failed to clear medical entrance exam NEET, have triggered shock in Tamil Nadu, with Chief Minister MK Stalin boycotting the Governor's Independence Day tea party.
Jagadeeshwaran failed to clear NEET, the qualifying exam for medical colleges, despite scoring high in class 12. He allegedly died by suicide at home on Saturday. His distraught father was found dead the very next day.
Chief Minister Stalin appealed to students to "not entertain suicidal thoughts but to have self-confidence and to live life". He also assured that NEET would be gone. A bill seeking to exempt Tamil Nadu from NEET is pending the President's sign-off.
Governor RN Ravi, who had returned the bill after a long delay, forwarded it to President Droupadi Murmu after the assembly passed it again.
Mr Stalin declared that he would skip the Governor's traditional tea on Independence Day because of his stand on NEET. During an interaction with NEET toppers, the governor had reportedly said he would never sign the state government's bill, even if he had the power.
"Look, I will be the last man to give clearance; never, ever. I do not want my children to feel intellectually disabled. I want our children to compete and be the best. They have proved it," he had said.
After the double tragedy, the Chief Minister wrote to President Murmu requesting her to clear the bill. The death count in Tamil Nadu due to student suicides over NEET stands at 16, he told the President.
"Student suicides could have been avoided if our Bill for exemption from NEET was given assent," said Mr Stalin.
"Each day of delay in its implementation costs not only valuable medical seats to deserving students but invaluable human lives to our society. I, therefore, solicit your immediate intervention in the matter and urge you to accord assent at the earliest to the above Bill passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly," Mr Stalin added.
A spate of alleged NEET-related suicides has been reported in the state in the past few years.
The Tamil Nadu assembly passed the bill seeking exemption from NEET in 2021, arguing that it favors affluent students who can afford private coaching and puts students from poor families and rural areas at a disadvantage, even if they score high marks in their Class XII exams.
For nearly a decade prior to this, the state had scrapped entrance tests for medical admissions and admitted students to MBBS programs based on their Class XII marks.