Chennai: The DMK is planning a statewide campaign against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to highlight its shortcomings, including the effect on the mental health of children and their parents.
A senior leader of the ruling party in Tamil Nadu told IANS that the recent death of a 17-year-old Jagadeeswaran and his father Selva Sekhar after the boy failed to clear NEET-2023 was a clear indicator of how NEET was affecting children and parents. He said that the ruling DMK was totally against NEET and that the party was planning a statewide campaign.
The DMK has been a vociferous critic of NEET. Chief Minister M K Stalin has announced that the Tamil Nadu government would boycott the 'At Home' celebration at the Raj Bhavan as part of the Independence Day celebrations to protest against the position taken by the Tamil Nadu Governor, R N Ravi.
DMK shedding crocodile tears, says Opposition
The opposition AIADMK has already claimed that the DMK was shedding crocodile tears over the death of students by suicide due to failure in NEET. AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has lashed out against CM Stalin and DMK.
In a statement on Monday, the AIADMK leader said that the DMK has not even raised the voice against NEET in Parliament even though it has 38 out of 39 Lok Sabha MPs. He said that the DMK was creating noise but not doing anything to ban NEET.
With the ruling DMK and the opposition AIADMK coming out against each other over NEET, politics of Tamil Nadu will be centred around this with both sides trying to score brownie points against the other.
