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Will call all-party meeting on NEET if required: Stalin
In total it has been 210 days since the Bill is stuck in Chennai’s Raj Bhavan in Guindy where it lies unattended, he said.
Chennai: Chief minister M K Stalin on Monday announced in the assembly that he would call for another all-party meeting if necessary, depending on the Governor’s actions, amidst reports that the Governor is likely to send the anti-NEET Bill to the President.
Stalin pointed out that it had been 70 days after the assembly passed the Bill for exemption from NEET the second time Governor R N Ravi rejected it the first time and returned it for the House’s consideration. In total it has been 210 days since the Bill is stuck in Chennai’s Raj Bhavan in Guindy where it lies unattended, he said.
Though the government and the Governor have tried to have a cordial relationship, the issue of NEET has caused a breakdown in the relationship. Due to the Governor’s delay in forwarding the Bill, the Tamil Nadu government and the DMK’s allies boycotted the Governor’s ‘At Home Reception’ held on April 14 coinciding with Tamil New Year’s day.
Stalin clarified that he has no personal animosity with the Governor. “In our meetings, he has praised our government and appreciated me. He is warm and respectful and we have extended the same to him and we will continue to do so. This culture is beyond politics,” said Stalin. But he defended their decision to boycott by striking an emotional cord. “The anti-NEET Bill, which reflects the sentiment of 7.5 crore Tamils,” he said adding that it amounts to hurting the sentiments of these people and belittling the century-old state assembly which passed the Bill twice unanimously except with the opposition of the BJP. “I have faced many insults in my 50 years of political life. I will bear more insults for the benefit of the people of Tamil Nadu,” Stalin said, adding that it is his duty to safeguard the dignity of the assembly. “The Governor must send the Bill to the President for his assent.”
Stalin made the statement under Rule 110 (under which a CM, minister can make a statement that cannot be opposed and debated). The state legislative assembly had passed the Undergraduate Medical Courses, 2021 Bill 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 that 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.
