Chennai: NEET ‘disguised’ as a measure of merit is an ‘excessive’ test.scam’And the Centre should stop defending the national test as it is against the interests of the country. Student and it is also against social justice and the poor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu MK Stalin said on Sunday. Stalin, president of the ruling DMK, said in a post on X: “The ongoing controversy over #NEET highlights its fundamentally unequal nature. In a society that has been denied education for thousands of years, we must provide the oppressed with greater opportunities to advance. On the contrary, NEET hinders the opportunities of such students.” He added, “Despite the defence of NEET by the Union Education Minister National Testing Agency According to the (NTA), recent events paint a different picture. The Gujarat police have filed an FIR on allegations of invigilators tampering with OMR sheets in exchange for monetary benefits, including cheques worth several crores of rupees and eight blank cheques. This conspiracy, which involves a school principal, a physics teacher and several NEET coaching centres, underlines the urgent need for systemic change.”

Further, the CM said, “From martyr Anitha to the countless students who tragically took their own lives, we have seen a lot. NEET, an exam presented as a measure of merit, has repeatedly exposed itself as a massive scam affecting all strata of society. The central government must stop defending this anti-student, anti-social justice and anti-poor NEET system.”

S Anitha, a Scheduled Caste Tamil girl who had approached the court to fulfil her dream of pursuing a course in medicine, ended her life in 2017. She is regarded as a champion of social justice in Tamil Nadu and a crusader for justice by mainstream political parties.

Kerala Congress on its Twitter handle said: “This is the mark sheet of Anitha, a Dalit girl from Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu, who had scored 1176/1200 (98%) marks in Class 12 but committed suicide after her fight against NEET failed as her plea was rejected by the Supreme Court. Today, when you see candidates who failed in Physics & Chemistry scoring 705/720 marks in NEET, you realise how unfair & one-sided the system is. Anitha is a martyr in this fight.”