Events & Issues

New Delhi, 15 September 2017

NEET Alert

PROTEST AS WAY OF POLITICS

By Dr S. Saraswathi

(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

The Supreme Court has acknowledged the right of citizens to express protest and criticism of any government order or decisions, but has strongly disapproved attempts to paralyse normal life and actions such as blocking rail and road traffic. The court was hearing a petition seeking its intervention and direction to the Tamil Nadu government to maintain law and order as protests against NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) for admission to MBBS and BDS courses have spread to many districts. The provocation was the suicide of a promising student from a poor family who had scored very high marks in board examination, but was unable to get through the common all-India test.

The three-member Bench directed the State government to act tough against protesters indulging in violence. It said that, “Anyone involved in any bandh or activity that disrupts life and detrimentally affects law and order shall be booked under appropriate law”.

This is not the first time that Supreme Court is strongly rejecting the growing bandh culture.  Some years ago, dealing with campus politics in Kerala, the court came down on student   politics and violent protests disturbing normal life.

The Supreme Court in 2013 scrapped the idea of NEET, but reversed it in 2016 after discussion among members of the Bench with the Chief Justice of India.  It was not accepted in Tamil Nadu the contention being that the test may be conducted for seats in central quota only. Common test for State quota was said to be an infringement of State’s rights. Many States wanted to defer the examination. The Bench contended that unaided private colleges across the country cannot be permitted to hold their own examinations.

The verdict of 2016 has a big impact in Tamil Nadu where medical admissions were made on the basis of marks scored in Class XII examination. Entrance examinations had been scrapped in Tamil Nadu in 2005 for 85 per cent of seats in government medical colleges and a certain percentage in private colleges.

The girl who ended her life  was one of the respondents in a case challenging the  introduction of  NEET.  The Court had refused to give exemption to Tamil Nadu from NEET this year (as was done last year) and had directed authorities to conduct counseling. Her suicide has become fodder to political parties wanting issues to join one another wherever possible and assuming a pose of protecting the interests of affected people  against  the decisions of the  governments at the Centre and the State. NEET is no longer an educational issue concerned with students and medical professionals. It has assumed political overtones dividing students and non-students politically.

Party politics today does not aim at genuine development and progress of all people against odds,  but concerned exclusively with getting things directly by mobilizing support of the people in whose name  they fight. The primary and many a times the only object is building and expanding their support base. Promoting responsible careers and widening opportunities and facilities to students in all places to face competitive examinations have no place in party politics. The petitioner in this case submitted that for political mileage, some parties were instigating innocent students and larger public to hold protests.

It is indeed surprising how NEET protests escalate so fast as to enter every nook and corner in the State. School students and their parents, professional film personalities, and activists from different organizations jointly and severally conducted rallies and demonstrations. Court rulings were defied and police pressure encountered.   

NEET is looked upon as a pro-urban measure as most of the rural students who take State Board examination find it difficult. Coaching classes and qualified teachers are concentrated in bigger cities and urban areas. Several parties are actually clamouring for permanent exemption to Tamil Nadu from adopting NEET perhaps without realising the full import of the demand.   

Why educational authorities of the State have not only failed, but also unwilling  to enhance the standard of syllabus and examinations at the higher secondary school  level  for so many decades is never replied. One-year exemption granted last year has not been utilised to raise the standard of students to the level required for medical education.  

An all-party meeting attended by opposition parties in Tamil Nadu including the Congress and Communist parties  under the leadership of the DMK urged the Centre to shift education from the Concurrent to State List in the Constitution.  It stated that the Centre had undermined social justice by introducing NEET.  More State-wide protests are planned.

More important than the question of social justice in this case is the need for opening opportunities for rural and educationally backward students, and ending the menace of spontaneous and guided street level protests growing fast after the victory of Jallikattu protest.  The onlookers, inconvenienced by strikes and demonstrations, often remark that it may be easier to persuade students to equip themselves to appear for tough examinations with proper coaching. Their interests can be cultivated by building encouraging environment in institutions including appointment of well equipped teachers rather than asking for downgrading qualifications for admission.

But, politics today will not permit positive thinking. The job of the Opposition is understood solely as the job of exhibiting and leading opposition to what the government proposes. The story is the same at the Centre and the States whatever the issue.  As a result, most of the party-supported public demands of the people are in the form of protests and negative in character, that is, against something.

Such is the mood of “opposition” in Indian politics irrespective of the groups occupying that status. Today’s Opposition may be tomorrow’s ruling group, and today’s rulers may become “Opposition” tomorrow.  But, behaviour  tends  to follow their political place.

In the bitter controversy raging over NEET which has led to suicides, resignations, and numberless litigations, it is forgotten that there are more serious issues than Social Justice in the change envisaged.

Commercialisation of medical education involving corruption as well, has been going on in full swing particularly in some States in southern India. Capitation fees, high fees and other expenditure charged in private medical colleges shatter the hope of meritorious and poor family students. Seats were said to be practically auctioned and granted to the highest bidder in some institutions.

Chances of reducing the business aspect of running medical colleges through a system of admission on merit basis are overlooked in over-emphasising differential access to students to  high quality elite schools. By twisting the whole issue as a blow to social justice to remove rural and poor students who take up State Board classes, mobilisation of students and parents has become easy for protesters.

There are about 422 medical colleges in the country with about 57,100 seats. Of these, nearly half of the institutions are in southern India. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of government medical colleges numbering 21.

Students aspiring for medical education have strong reason to fight for enhancing the standard of school education and opening of special schools for various professional education. They should not fall in the trap of politics and choose a downward path.---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)