Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Congress leader D K Shivakumar
Credit: PTI File Photo
The Congress government is considering following Tamil Nadu’s footsteps in opposing NEET, which may possibly include a legislation seeking exemption from the all-India exam.
“We are discussing going the Tamil Nadu way,” Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar told reporters. “The Karnataka government... we are opposing NEET. It’s a big scandal,” he said.
“Our people have built institutions in the state. The institutions, managements, locals... they’re unable to provide seats to students belonging to their communities. We need a national discussion on this. Students from outside have a reservation, yes, but that’s a different matter. We’ll discuss this in the coming days,” Shivakumar said.
Last week, Shivakumar had urged the union government to scrap NEET and allow states to conduct their own entrance tests for medical school admissions.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution against NEET first in 2017, accusing the Centre of “imposing” the exam on the states. The Centre rejected it in 2019.
In 2021, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a legislation seeking exemption from NEET and sent it to the Governor.
The Governor returned the Bill in February 2022, following which the Assembly passed it again.
The Governor then sent it to the President in May 2022 as education comes under the concurrent list of the Constitution. The Bill is pending before the President.
Accordingly, medical school admissions are being done only through NEET scores in Tamil Nadu.
Sources said that Shivakumar reached out to Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil for his opinion on NEET. Apparently, Patil told Shivakumar that there was little that the state government could do.
‘EVMs must go’
Shivakumar also reiterated his stance on switching back to ballot papers. In Karnataka, Shivakumar claimed that the BJP-JD(S) won the highest number of seats because of EVMs.
“EVMs must go. Ballot boxes must return. Last time, we saw in Madhya Pradesh, Congress got two-thirds of the ballot votes and rest for BJP. With EVMs, things were different. Even BJP was astonished. Here, too, the BJP and the JD(S) did not expect the results. We should go into the details,” he said.