This article is from Sep 05, 2021

Seeman claims that Karunanidhi wrote a letter welcoming the NEET exam. What is the truth?

Claim

Karunanidhi wrote a letter welcoming NEET – Seeman.

Rating

Explanation

On September 1, during the commemoration ceremony of Tamil Desiya Porali Aiya Tamilarasan and Anitha and the birthday of Veeraperumpaattan Poolithevan, at Chennai headquarters Seeman answered an interview question on the act against NEET (14.20 minute), “Congress is the first to introduce NEET. They (DMK) were with Congress but didn’t oppose it. Moreover, Karunanidhi wrote a letter welcoming NEET”.

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We were asked by our followers whether Karunanidhi wrote a letter appreciating NEET.

What is the Truth?

No news on Karunanidhi writing a letter welcoming the move of introducing NEET is found since Congress brought in the entrance exam at the All India level. Moreover, news articles from 2010 mentioning Karunanidhi’s disagreement on entrance exams can be seen.

16th August 2010 dated The Hindu article reports, “In a letter addressed to PM Manmohan Singh and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, CM Karunanidhi started that the state could not accept the move. He cited social justice policy and the advantages reaped by rural students from disadvantaged sections because of the state government’s decision to scrap entrance examinations”.

5th January 2011 dated The Indian Express article reports, “In a letter to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nagi Azad, Karunanidhi said his government would strongly protest the move to conduct an All India Common Entrance Examination for admission to PG courses in the medical colleges as proposed”.

DMK Spokesperson Constantine Ravindran said Youturn, “Ask Seeman to show the letter written by Kalaignar. Kalaignar wrote a letter to the then PM Manmohan Singh and Gulam Nabi Azad in 2010. We proposed a law against entrance exams in Tamil Nadu in 2007. Tamil Nadu would be affected if a common exam for everyone across India is introduced which also does not fit in reservation policy, mentioned in the letter.

He also wrote a letter to his fellowmen in November 2010 in Murasoli stating that entrance exams in any form should not be allowed. When this is the case, how would he welcome NEET? The medical council of India suggested a common entrance exam in 2010. The Health Minister informed that the states which do not accept the entrance exam can be stayed out of it. However, in January 2011, he got the exam banned for Tamil Nadu from Supreme Court”.

We spoke to NTK Idumbavanam Karthi to get details on it. He said he will speak later on this. We will update this article once we receive his views.

NEET was introduced during the Congress regime on 5th May 2013. Later on 18th July 2013, 115 petitions against the NEET exam in Supreme Court resulted in the banning of the exam. On 11th April 2016, the Supreme Court removed the ban on the NEET exam. The BJP government brought in an emergency law with the approval of the President to fill in the medical seats for the year 2016-17 through the NEET exam.

A permanent law to conduct the NEET exam was proposed in the Parliament in July 2016. Emergency law was introduced which allowed the states that do not want to have entrance exams including Tamil Nadu to fill in the government medical seats as per the respective state’s rule for that particular year alone. Tamil Nadu has requested a permanent ban for the NEET exam, where the exam is being conducted in TN since 2017-18.

Conclusion

No information on Karunanidhi’s letter welcoming NEET as claimed by Seeman was found. It can be seen from the news articles and the clarification from DMK’s end that Karunanidhi was opposing NEET since 2010.

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