Only Centre can exempt TN from NEET, admits CM Stalin

CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday conceded on the floor of the State Assembly that only the Union government could offer an exemption to Tamil Nadu from NEET and that his party would have done it if the INDIA bloc had formed the government at the Centre. The DMK, in its election manifesto, had promised to secure exemption from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for Tamil Nadu.

Stalin made the admission intervening while Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami was speaking on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address. Earlier, Palaniswami set the tone for a serial exchange with the CM when he wondered if the DMK regime would secure exemption from NEET as it promised ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls.

Admitting to making the promise, Stalin referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also seconding the promise and said the AIADMK was supporting the BJP government now and they could do the same. Upping his ante on the issue, EPS said that DMK MP Gandhiselvan was the Union MoS for Health when NEET was imposed and the DMK was part of that Congress-led government.

As EPS attributed the introduction of NEET during this tenure to court orders, an outspoken Stalin said, "Everyone knows who can scrap NEET. Only the Union, not the state government," before clarifying that he never promised to ink his first signature as the Chief Minister to scrap NEET. Charging the DMK with doublespeak before and after polls, EPS said they had only said the same (only the Centre could scrap NEET) back then.

CM Stalin went on the offensive and wondered why the previous regime led by EPS did not disclose the status of the NEET exemption bill forwarded to the President and court case for one year. Asserting that they (DMK) did not subscribe to NEET even when they were in alliance, and they successfully obtained exemption from the court, Stalin said if the INDIA bloc formed a government, they would have secured exemption from NEET for Tamil Nadu.

A sarcastic EPS said that the INDIA bloc had already fallen apart and there was no chance of it forming a government.