Former Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam has displayed that he is apparently backing his rival MK Stalin in his demand to abrogating the NEET exam, the common entrance test for medical aspirants to acquire a seat in medical colleges and varsities. Panneerselvam's backing has come a day after Chief Minister MK Stalin has demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to abolish the entrance exam. 

According to reports, Panneerselvam, who is the coordinator of ADMK which observes an alliance with the Central ruling BJP, has on Sunday urged the Prime Minister to abolish NEET and similar national level examinations. Panneerselvam had written to the Prime Minister and highlighted that late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had strongly opposed the national examination. He pointed out that the previous ADMK government had adopted two bills against the exam in 2017, but they eventually had gone in vain.

Panneerselvam had further said that the students studying in the government schools and those from socially and economically marginalized sections of the society can't able to clear the national level examinations including NEET without proper coaching. He also underlined that the NEET exam is based on the NCERT- CBSE curriculum and the students in Tamil Nadu who are based on the state board curriculum will face difficulty in clearing the examinations which will weaken their prospects of acquiring a medical seat. 

By asserting that the NEET exam was against social justice and collapses the opportunities to students of all sections, the ADMK leader has demanded the Union government should take a uniform decision to not just abolish NEET but all national level examinations.  The demand from Panneerselvam with backing MK Stalin has stirred a fresh round of political debate with several people commenting that the previous ADMK regime didn't go hard on Center while NEET was implemented during the regime.

His demand has come a day after Stalin has written to the Prime Minister to cancel NEET. On Saturday, MK Stalin has demanded the Prime Minister to cancel NEET and all other national-level examinations. The Chief Minister has requested the Union government to allow Tamil Nadu to fill both medical and professional seats based on the marks secured by the students in their Class 12 examination.  

On the other hand, Stalin has also formed a high-level committee headed by retired High Court judge Justice AK Rajan to study and assess the impact of NEET on medical college admissions over the last few years in the state. The committee will be studying the impact of NEET among government school students and students from marginalized backgrounds. NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) has been conducted across India by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as a single window for acquiring a medical seat in medical colleges. 

The hasty introduction of the national exam had pushed several students to brace up the exam and several others to give up their medical aspirations. While the National Test had run into outrage initially, most of the states had later got used to the test, leaving the students to clear the burdensome gateway to acquire a medical seat in leading medical colleges and varsities. Tamil Nadu has been one of the states that furiously voiced against the test and it has largely been demanding the Center to repeal the National Test.