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DMK skips guv event over NEET bill delay
However, senior leaders from opposition parties - AIADMK, BJP and PMK - were in attendance where the Governor first inaugurated a statue of Subramania Bharathiyar to observe Tamil New Year and then hosted a reception.
The MK Stalin-led government in Tamil Nadu exerted more pressure on Governor RN Ravi by sending a ministerial delegation on Thursday to meet him over the Anti-NEET Bill.
Following this, the state government announced it was boycotting the Governor’s “At Home Reception” conducted at Raj Bhavan later in the evening in protest against Ravi’s delay in forwarding the Bill to the President of India for his assent.
However, senior leaders from opposition parties - AIADMK, BJP and PMK - were in attendance where the Governor first inaugurated a statue of Subramania Bharathiyar to observe Tamil New Year and then hosted a reception.
On Thursday night, the government released a letter from Stalin to the Governor in which the chief minister expresses pain over the lack of a positive response from him.
Stalin said when the Governor returned the Bill to the House, they did not view it as adversarial. Stalin also said as medical admission were to commence shortly, “there is tremendous anxiety and uncertainty among the aspiring students and their parents in the State. Given this situation, I am sure that you would appreciate our sense of disappointment and dismay at this juncture over the impasse.”
Under these circumstances, Stalin said it would be inappropriate for them to attend this celebratory event hosted at Raj Bhavan, since the collective will of the society and legislative assembly have not been given its due regard. “Even now, I sincerely hope that you will see the fairness in our request and forward the NEET Bill to government of India without any further delay, thereby fulfilling the constitutional mandate,” Stalin said.
The chief minister recalled that since Ravi took charge, they have been enjoying a “cordial and productive relationship” and during his government also values the will of its people. “I am confident that when both of us discharge our constitutional duties constructively, the state shall stand to benefit and continue to prosper. I am sure that our relationship would continue to be warm and cordial in the best interest of the people of Tamil Nadu.”
Earlier in the day, state health minister M Subramanian and industries minister Thangam Thennarasu met the Governor. After the meeting, Thennarasu told reporters that the Governor didn’t give them any commitment on when he would forward the Bill. So, the government decided that Stalin, cabinet ministers and MLAs of the ruling DMK will boycott the Governor’s function. DMK’s allies – Congress, Left parties, VCK and MMK - had already announced that they were boycotting the event.
Thennarasu said given a new academic year is approaching, it is worrisome that the Governor has not forwarded the Bill. “The Governor has neither made any commitment or given the two of us any timeline,” said Thennarasu. “He has not considered the state legislation’s unanimous decision, people’s sentiments and the medical aspirations of our rural students. So, in this situation, we wouldn’t be able to participate in the Governor’s functions today as it will hurt people’s sentiments.” The DMK ministers conveyed the same to the Governor.
Thenarrasu also explained that when Stalin had met the Governor in March, the latter had said he will send the Bill to the President soon. After the meeting, Stalin too had revealed that the Governor told him that he too knows law and he has no option now but to send it to the President because the Tamil Nadu’s assembly passed the Bill for the second time.
Stalin had also complained of the Governor’s delay to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they met in Delhi in April. “Yet, the Governor has taken no action so the CM sent us here today to urge him to forward it at the earliest. Initially, the Governor didn’t take action for 142 days and then sent the Bill back. The government took immediate steps and once again unanimously passed the Bill and sent it back to the Governor and it has been 208 days now,” Thennarasu said.
The relationship between the office of the Governor and the DMK government soured after Ravi returned the Bill for the House to reconsider it. The state legislative assembly had passed the Undergraduate Medical Courses Bill, 2021 unanimously barring the BJP on 13 September last year. Since then, senior leaders of the DMK went around to meet various other state chief ministers seeking their support for the abolition of NEET.
A team met union home minister Amit Shah over the issue. And a Stalin-led delegation had met the Governor last year to press him to forward the Bill. The matter reached crescendo when a few DMK leaders even demanded the Governor’s resignation over his inaction.
And 142 days later, the Governor stunned the state by returning the Bill saying it presents a jaundiced view and makes sweeping assumptions. On February 8, Tamil Nadu’s MLAs once again convened to adopt the anti-NEET Bill for the second time while the BJP’s four MLAs walked out of the assembly. The Bill seeks to restore the state’s method of admitting students for medical admission based on Class 12 marks before NEET became a reality in Tamil Nadu in 2017 as mandated by a Supreme Court verdict.
Besides the Bill, other Bills waiting for the Governor’s assent are the Cooperative Societies Bill to amend the Bharathiar University Act to add five members in the syndicate to reduce the term of the cooperative societies’ board to three years from five years.
Meanwhile, Ravi inaugurated the Bharathiyar statue in the presence of the late poet and freedom fighter’s family, distributed prizes for school children and hosted consulate officials, armed personnel and several others in the city. BJP state unit president K Annamalai and AIADMK heavyweights and former ministers SP Velumani, C Vijayabhaskar shared a table.
