Killed Student's Father Responds To Minister's "Study Medicine Abroad" Remark

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi controversially said "90% of Indians who study medicine abroad fail to clear qualifying exams in India," even as tens of thousands of Indians remain stranded in war-hit Ukraine.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi's comments on students studying abroad "after failing to qualify" in competitive exams in India drew a sharp response from the grieving father of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, who was killed in Russian shelling in Ukraine's Kharkiv yesterday.

Naveen, 21, was an intelligent student who simply could not afford to study medicine in India and so went to Ukraine, said his father Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, speaking to NDTV at his home in Karnataka's Chalageri.

Pralhad Joshi, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, had made the controversial statement in response to a question on Indian students studying in Ukraine. More than 9,000 have been flown back as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, but tens of thousands remain in cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv, waiting for a chance to escape while hiding in bunkers, underground metro stations and basements.

"Ninety per cent of Indians who study medicine abroad fail to clear qualifying exams in India," Mr Joshi told reporters in Chalageri on Tuesday, but added that it was "not the right time to debate why students are moving out to study medicine".