ERODE: War of words between opposition leaders and the DMK over NEET continued with chief minister M K Stalin rebutting the repeated allegations that the national entrance test was brought by the Congress with the support of DMK.
Campaigning for DMK candidates in Erode virtually on Thursday, Stalin said then chief minister M Karunanidhi had written a letter in 2010 opposing NEET. The Congress too agreed not to go ahead with NEET and put the decision on hold. But it was the BJP government which introduced NEET after it came to power in 2014, Stalin said.
"AIADMK has been uttering the same lies repeatedly that it was Congress and DMK which introduced NEET. Fact remains that Karunanidhi was against entrance exams of any form," Stalin said. Elaborating, Stalin said Karunanidhi strongly objected to a common entrance exam for medical courses, when the Medical Council of India made such a suggestion in 2010. Karunanidhi wrote a letter on August 27, 2010, to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad. In his reply, Azad said it was a decision by MCI and that the Centre would not press for a common entrance exam without consulting states.
In 2011, Karunanidhi wrote yet another letter opposing entrance exams for PG medical admission. Congress too wrote to MCI to withdraw its decision to conduct NEET.
Subsequently, Karunanidhi approached the Madras high court and obtained a stay for the entrance exam for PG admissions. The Supreme Court too gave a verdict against NEET in 2013.
