BJP repeatedly tried to impose its will on people of Tamil Nadu: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh

Congress accuses BJP of imposing will on Tamil Nadu, highlighting NEET issues and insufficient tax devolution from Centre.

The Congress on April 10 accused the BJP of repeatedly trying to impose its will on the people of Tamil Nadu and flagged issues such as "devastating impacts" of NEET in the State and insufficient devolution of taxes from the Centre.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his rally in Coimbatore and posed questions to him on key issues affecting the State.

"Today, PM Modi will be in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. In a State which has a long history of advocating for cooperative federalism, the BJP has repeatedly tried to impose its will on the people," Mr. Ramesh said.

He said, "The Modi Sarkar's track record in TN begs the question — does PM Modi want to represent the people, or does he want to rule over them?" Mr. Ramesh said the NEET exam was introduced by the BJP government in 2017, and it faced widespread public backlash due to fears that it would unfairly disadvantage students from poor and the marginalised communities.

"Very soon, these fears were confirmed. According to 2019 data, only 2% of students who qualified for the exam did so without enrolling in private coaching. Since coaching centres charge between 2.5 lakh to five lakh per student, it is nearly impossible for marginalised students to qualify for the exam," he said.

Sure enough, the Congress leader said, data shows that the number of Tamil-medium government school students securing seats in medical courses reduced drastically after NEET was introduced — from 600 in 2016 (before NEET) to just 5 in 2017, 7 in 2018 and 0 in 2019.

"To address this injustice, the TN Assembly has passed two NEET Bills since 2017 that exempt students from taking the exam, but neither bill was given assent by the President. The most tragic element of this narrative is that Tamil Nadu has experienced several student suicides prior to the exam every year since its inception," Mr. Ramesh said.