NEET, JEE exams: No politics, please!

Two competitive examinations that decide the fate of thousands of students every year are at the center of the national debate right now. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has refused to defer the dates of these two national competitive tests while the Opposition political parties headed by the Congress wants these exams canceled or postponed in the wake of rising numbers of COVID-19 patients all over the country.

 

 

Some students had even approached the Supreme Court on deferring the exams but the apex court has dismissed their petition saying that “ultimately life has to go on and the career of the students cannot be put on the peril for long and a full academic year cannot be wasted”.

 

The Shiksha Mantralaya under whose authority the NTA operates has also clarified that it has already deferred the dates on several occasions this year due to the pandemic. The tests cannot be put off any longer, the Ministry has said.

 

The Ministry has taken all safety measures like sanitizing the exam centers prior and post-exams, providing masks and gloves to students, and maintaining social distance during the exams besides, temperature scanning and staggered entry. The NTA has even increased the number of exam centers to limit the number of occupants in the hall.

 

However, the demand for postponing the NEET and JEE still persisted, this time the political parties in the opposition jumping into the controversy lending their support to the students’ demand.

 

Sonia Gandhi, whose interim presidency of the diminishing Congress party got extended till the next fulltime president is elected by the CWC (no one knows when the next CWC meet) convened the meeting of all the seven non-BJP ruled states on Tuesday to seek their support for deferment of the NEET and JEE in the wake of an increasing number of Coronavirus patients.

 

 

The parties including the TMC, Shiv Sena, YSR Congress, TRS etc. eager to grasp any opportunity that would put the BJP in trouble, gladly agreed to her proposal to move the Supreme Court once again on the issue. TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee was all the more vocal on this issue after Sonia Gandhi.

 

At the virtual meeting with Sonia Gandhi, she said that the time was not favorable for conducting these exams and therefore, the government should rethink on the issue at the same time appealing to the fellow chief ministers to unitedly move the apex court on this issue.

 

 

 

 

Mamata Banerjee, on receiving a letter from the National Testing Agency (NTA) over conducting the JEE and NEET exams from September 1, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday—her third letter since July 11 on exams, and second, in two successive days —urging the Centre to appeal before the Supreme Court to review its decision “in the interest of the student community”. The Supreme Court on August 17 rejected the PILs seeking to defer both the entrance exams.

 

Similar feelings were voiced by Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand chief ministers. The members of the Youth Congress staged a protest near the Shastri Bhawan in Delhi on Wednesday, demanding postponement of the JEE and NEET exams in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Several protesters, who tried to enter the Education Ministry, housed at Shastri Bhawan, to submit a memorandum, were detained by the police. Manipur Students Union too supported the demand for postponement of the exams.

 

Thus, the issue of holding the NEET/JEE has become a matter of serious national or even international discussion and debate. The celebrated youngest environment activist Greta Thunberg has also joined the ‘postpone exam bandwagon’ lending the much-needed credence to the movement of the ‘anti-Modi’ parties and groups.

 

The 17-year-old Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg is famous for her “How Dare You?” poster on climate change issue. This Swedish school dropout now relishes politics also.

 

 

By supporting the demand for deferring NEET/JEE, Greta has triggered a storm again. She is most vocal on this issue much but maintains a meek silence on the issues within her own country Sweden. And what does she know about the Indian students, and exam pattern, etc? But her voice can be a great help for the opposition parties led by Sonia Gandhi whose interim presidency is extended!

 

The dates for these exams are fixed, the admit cards are dispatched and many students have downloaded their entry cards. According to the program announced by the Ministry of Education, the JEE (Main) will be held from September 1 to 6, 2020 while the NEET will be conducted on September 13, 2020. These dates are finalized after two-time deferment of the exams and now the government has ruled out any postponement and firmly expressed its resolve to hold them.

 

The NTA, which functions under the Ministry of Education, also said that 99.07% of JEE (Main) aspirants will be offered their preferred choice of exam centers, while the same will be applied to 99.87% of NEET candidates.

 

The Supreme Court in its verdict on the issue said, “We find that there is absolutely no justification in the prayer made for the postponement of the examination in question relating to NEET UG-2020 as well as JEE (Main) April 2020. In our opinion, though there is a pandemic situation, ultimately life has to go and the career of the students cannot be put on peril for long and a full academic year cannot be wasted.”

 

But the Congress and the other ‘smaller, state-confined’ political parties (Congress included) blinded by their mindless and illogical opposition to every decision taken by the Modi government seem to have lost reason on this issue also. Their viciously motivated and baseless allegations that the Modi government does not pay heed to the needs of the students is absolutely false. On the contrary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken humungous efforts to personally reach out to the students and aspirants time and again.

 

So, the Sonia - led Congress which is fast becoming irrelevant in the contemporary political scenario in India, should behave responsibly and desist from indulging in such petty politics over conducting the competitive exams. Their dirty politics will only spoil the future of millions of students and in turn, darken the future of the country which is poised for a big leap forward on the global scene.