DMK to highlight HC's rebuttal of BJP's plea against NEET panel

 (12:32) 

---

Chennai, July 14 (IANS) The DMK has decided to campaign across the state on the Madras High Court rejecting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by BJP Tamil Nadu state secretary, K. Nagarajan against the constitution of a committee headed by Justice (Rtd) A.K. Rajan to study the impact of NEET on socially and economic students of the society.

The first bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice, Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had rejected the PIL on Tuesday stating that the state government has all the right to constitute such a committee to study the impact of the NEET on socially and economically backward people.

Chief minister M.K. Stalin had on Tuesday in a press statement said that the verdict of the Madras High Court had exposed the BJP and its "Side Kick", the AIADMK and added that the Justice (Rtd) A.K. Rajan committee has received views of more than 86,000 people. Stalin, in his statement also said that the judgment of the Madras High Court has given credence to the fight of the state government over the NEET exams foisted upon students of economically and backward class communities.

The DMK leaders met online on Tuesday immediately after the verdict and decided to campaign across the state against the BJP and the AIADMK, which they say are trying to scuttle the state government's measure of constituting a committee headed by a retired Justice to hear the views of the common people over the NEET exams.

The DMK has also deputed all-party district secretaries to forge an alliance with its constituent partners and conduct a campaign at the grassroots level on the anti-people and anti-poor measures taken by the BJP and the AIADMK.

Radhakrishnan Swaminathan, an activist based out of Erode and president of Social and Economic Study centre while speaking to IANS said, "It was indeed a major victory for the DMK in the Madras High Court and the court had made a clear observation that the constitution of a committee to study the impact of NEET is not in defiance to the Supreme Court. The statement of chief minister Stalin is a pointer that the DMK would target the AIADMK specifically as the BJP is not a force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu."

With NEET scheduled for September 12, and the Tamil Nadu health minister himself calling upon the students to prepare for the examinations, the government may not have much to do on the conduct of the examinations, but by conducting a campaign against the AIADMK and the BJP across the state, it is expecting to win a few brownie points against its political rivals.