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The protests against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) question paper leak had spread nationwide. Among cities where they saw steadfast support was Chennai, where young people gathered at Balan Illam, the Tamil Nadu state headquarters of the Communist Party of India. In other cities including Madurai, Coimbatore, Pudukottai, Villupuram, Tiruvallur and Tiruchi too, student organisations such as Students’ Federation of India, Democratic Youth Federation of India, All India Students’ Federation, and All India Youth Federation protested despite severe police crackdowns.

Balan Illam, which emerged as the centre of the anti-NEET protest in Chennai is no stranger to protests or gatherings. But most of the young people who turned up at Balan Illam every day are newcomers who had never been there before. Many of the youths who spoke out in condemnation were, for the first time, holding a mic and speaking on a public platform. They said they went there after seeing posts on social media.

Just as at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, instead of conventional forms of protest, they had registered their dissent through forms they were familiar with — such as gaana songs, rap songs, stand-up comedy, drama, and painting. However, the slogans raised by student protesters at Balan Illam and across Tamil Nadu differed from those raised in Delhi. In the protests taking place over NEET in Tamil Nadu, there were not many demands — there was only one demand: that NEET be abolished.

This demand among youth for the abolition of NEET did not arise out of mere emotion. It is an expression of a widespread awareness, based on data that the NEET examination system itself is inequitable. The parties that previously ruled Tamil Nadu had laid a strong foundation for this. One important instance of this is the report of the High-Level Committee set up during the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government to study the Impact of NEET on medical admissions in Tamil Nadu.

Also read: Who Is on the ‘High Powered Task Force on Examinations’?

With political parties and organisations in Tamil Nadu strongly opposing the requirement that students must pass the NEET exam to get admission to medical colleges, then Chief Minister M.K. Stalin constituted a nine-member committee headed by retired high court judge Justice A.K. Rajan to examine the impact of the exam. The government defined the committee’s primary objective as determining whether NEET is an equitable method of selection of students.

What the committee was asked to do and what it did

The terms of reference set for the committee also included whether the NEET-based admission process has adversely affected the social, economic, and federal polity, and the students of rural and urban poor, those who studied in government schools, those who studied in Tamil medium, or any other section of students in Tamil Nadu.

If so, the committee was told to suggest steps to remove the impediments and protect the........

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