Protests against NEET spill on to the streets of Tamil Nadu following the suicide of a Dalit girl in the State who scored high marks in the plus Two examination but failed to get an MBBS seat.
IF the suicide of S. Anitha, a 17- year-old Dalit student from Tamil Nadu, is anything to go by, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) has been excruciating and traumatic for thousands of students of the Tamil Nadu Board of Higher Secondary Education. Anitha, who scored 1,176 marks (out of 1,200) in the State board Plus Two examinations, could score only 86 out of 720 in NEET, which is based on the tougher Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus. Unable to join the MBBS course, she hanged herself at her home in Kuzhumur village in the backward district of Ariyalur on September 1.
After the jallikattu issue in January 2017 when thousands of students massed on the Marina beach in Chennai, Anitha’s suicide became the rallying point for students and political parties agitating across Tamil Nadu with their demand to scrap NEET. As the protests gathered momentum, in a dramatic turn of events, the Supreme Court, on September 8, banned agitations against NEET.
In an interim order on a petition filed by the advocate G.S. Mani, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud said the Supreme Court had ruled that NEET was the sole basis for admission to the MBBS and BDS courses and so protests and roadblocks against it and disruption of public life would amount to contempt of court. The court directed the State government to book anyone who instigated violence in the name of NEET.
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