New Delhi, Aug 30: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Sunday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not addressing the grievances of JEE-NEET aspirants after his government’s decision to conduct the entrance examinations amid Covid-19. Instead, Gandhi said, the prime minister spoke about the country’s “toy industry” in his monthly outreach programme Mann Ki Baat earlier today.
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said: “JEE-NEET aspirants wanted the PM do ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ but the PM did ‘Khilone Pe Charcha’.”
Gandhi’s comment comes after the Supreme Court allowed the Centre to conduct Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in September. On Friday, the Supreme Court gave a nod to the University Grants Commission to hold semester exams in universities and colleges by September 30, albeit allowing individual states the freedom to defer from the exams beyond the September 30 date.
NEET will be conducted on September 13 and JEE is scheduled in the first week of September. Around 9.53 lakh and 15.97 lakh candidates have registered for JEE and NEET respectively. These exams have already been deferred twice in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Opposition voices have been rising against the government’s decision to conduct these examinations as coronavirus cases show no signs of abating in the country. Congress on Friday held nationwide protests and ran an online campaign against the decision, with Sonia Gandhi urging the centre to listen to the voices of the students.
On the other hand, around 150 academics from different universities have written to Narendra Modi asking him to go ahead with the exams as planned, and not give in to voices of opposition.
