Ramesh Pandita
The polity in Jammu & Kashmir has got cocooned around article 370. Every political discourse in the state is bound to end up discussing, as how it is going to affect the special status of the state, which it enjoys under article 370. Thereon, any policy, programme or the proposal extended to the state of Jammu & Kashmir by the Central Government is bound to be opposed tooth and nail, especially by the politicians and the people from the Kashmir region. Sometimes, it seems the people from the region suffer with some extreme and irrational fear of simple things, whereby they see every initiative extended to the state by the Central Government primarily aimed to dilute the special status of the Jammu & Kashmir in general and the article 370 in particular. The irony is, previously, it used to be the bunch of illiterate politician, who used to raise hue and cry, but of late, it is the so called learned and literate lot of politicians who without giving any thought to the initiatives, jump into the controversy.
Former Chief Minister of the Jammu & Kashmir and the working president of the National Conference Omar Abdullah is one such figure who seems to be enjoying his new controversial avatar. Needless to talk about the sharp criticism, which Mr. Abdullah received from different quarters, especially from his followers on the twitter for posting a collage of 2010 unrest of the Kashmir valley and trying to label it as recent. The act was labeled as instigative, frustrating and insane for reasons better known to all. Of late, Mr. Abdullah in his usual style picked the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) by opposing the Supreme Court’s order to conduct the NEET for undergraduate Medicine & Dental courses in J&K. Mr. Abdullah was followed by other like minded politicians from different political parties, who took no time in dragging article 370 into it and termed extension of NEET to the Jammu & Kashmir as an infringement into the special status and autonomy of the state. People love to jump into controversies, perhaps for being groomed by the social media to conduct themselves irresponsibly and to divulge over the subject without having any understanding.
Any policy or programme, which is aimed to improve the state of any existing faulty practice, should always be welcomed. Constitutional provisions which block the improvement of any existing practice should be done away with. The apex court in its verdict over the NEET observed that NEET is only the qualifying exam for entrance in Medical courses, which applied to Jammu & Kashmir as well. Since higher education is in the concurrent list, hence Centre’s notification on academic verdict overrides the orders of the state.
Some Facts about National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET)
For the better understanding of the subject, people must know that, the NEET was introduced by the Central Government in the year 2012 to conduct the National Eligibility Entrance Test for undergraduate Medical and Dental courses admission across the country. As on date, NEET is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi for both the UG and PG Medical and Dental courses. It is a three hour duration test, conducted once in a year across the country in over 50 centers. The test comprises of 180 objective type questions based on 10+2 level syllabi of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (Botany & Zoology) given itself in the Information Bulletin and stands also posted on the official website of the CBSE.
The candidates having studied Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology and may have obtained at least 50% marks at the 10+2 level for general candidates, 40% for the candidates belonging to SC, ST and OBC category are eligible to take this test. Further, the candidates with locomotive disabilities should have obtained at least 45% mark for general candidates and 40% for candidates belonging to SC, ST and OBC category in the aforementioned subjects are eligible to take the test. In order to compete for the Medical/Dental course, a candidate has to seek at least 50% marks in the entrance test for general candidates, 40% marks for SC, ST and OBC candidates. Similarly, candidates suffering with locomotive disability have to secure at least 45% marks under the general category, 40% under reserve categories. Of the total seats available across the medical colleges of the country, 15% candidates shall be admitted to the Medical/Dental courses under all India quota, while as, the remaining 85% candidates are to be admitted from the state quota, provided the candidate has appeared in the NEET and may have scored the minimum eligibility marks in the test. From the 15% all India quota, 15% seats are reserved for SC candidates, 7.5% for ST candidates and 27% for OBC candidates belonging to non-creamy layer of the category. 3% seats are reserved for candidates on horizontal basis with locomotive disability. In case the seats from the state quota remain vacant, the colleges can fill such seats by admitting students from the other states, provided they fulfill all other eligibility conditions as per the procedure laid down by the governing bodies like, Medical Council of India (MCI), AIPMT rules, DGHS etc.
The primary aim of conducting this nationwide medical entrance examination apart from standardizing the medical entrance examination system was to get rid of the multiple medical entrance examination systems, presently in place across the country. Even some of the universities and institutions conduct their own individual exams. Apart from these the most compelling reason to have in place the common entrance test was to do away with the practice of corruption, which is prevalent all across the country with this particular admission process. Needless to remind Mr. Abdullah and other like minded politicians of the state of the infamous CET scam of the state, which caught the attention of the scribes, post 2010. People still doubt the fairness of investigations carried out in the scam, as the chairman of BoPEE itself was detained for corrupt practices. Even if the public hearsay and some media reports are to be believed, then whatever in this particular case was revealed to the public was just a tip of the ice-berg of a well grown and well established mafia and nexus, actively involved with admission in the medical colleges across the state. Omar Abdullah should have supported the NEET for the very reasons and challenges, which he faced, when he was the Chief Minister of the state. Mr. Abdullah seems to have forgotten when his own party men G.M Saroori and Ram Paul were found guilty on the similar pretext. PDP the then opposition party, accused the Omar Abdullah Government and termed the NC’s polices as the root cause of all such scams. The PDP, the then opposition party even went up to the extent of terming Mr. Peer as the conduit of NC.
The Nation is aware of the 2013 Vyapam Scam of the Madhya Pradesh, which caught the attention of both the national and the international media, which again was related the admission scam in the medical courses, involving top bureaucrats and the politicians of the state. During the investigations and the parallel media trial, it got clearly exposed, how Medical Entrance Examination in the Madhya Pradesh was actually rigged by impersonating the medical students from the nearby states. During the investigations, it also emerged that how aspirants were directly helped by the paid medical students, leaking and selling of question papers, rigging of answer sheets, allotting higher marks, filling unfinished answer sheets and many more practices were followed to put the undeserving students at an advantage. One can imagine the magnitude of nexus and the mafia from the fact, that over 2500 people were accused, over 1900 were arrested and over 500 are still sought in this connection and above all nearly 50 unnatural deaths of the people accused in the case have been witnessed in the case during the past two years. It was also observed that a medical seat in Madhya Pradesh used to bid for anything between 1 million to 7 million rupees. Chander Bushan, a retired judge, who headed the three member SIT to monitor the local police investigation observed that “Vyapam is the proverbial tip of the iceberg, this is happening all over the country”
What is more important to note is that, when we already have different national level examination practices in place for admission, then what is preventing various state governments in general and ours in particular to oppose this particular national level entrance examination test.
Some of the State Governments are of the view that students from the disadvantaged section of the society for their poor academic attainments may not be able to compete at the national level, as such may be deprived of the opportunity to improve their social and economic standing. Still more, some argue about the existing difference in the syllabi of the state and the central boards. When we are talking about vision 2020 or the uniform development of India on the standard lines, then citing all these reasons and many others sound unusual, which do not hold any significance. India as on date has reached to the stage, where initiatives like having the NEET in place should be welcomed and we should do away with all such conventional practices, which have got nothing substantial to offer.
It is a known fact that hundreds of private medical colleges are run across the country, mostly by influential people, who are politically well connected, by the politicians themselves and others, and it is these people who actually oppose the conducting of the NEET the most, as they know by having a common entrance test in place, they will be no more able to exploit the conditions to their advantage. Tomorrow it should not come to us as a surprise if the NEET gets deferred by a year or two, for the fact that as many as 80 parliamentarians are believed to be having a stake in private medical colleges and who knows the politicians opposing the NEET at the state level so vociferously, may actually be protecting similar interests.
(The author is Assistant Librarian, Central Library, BGSB University, Rajouri, J & K)
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