CHENNAI/SALEM: At a time when the general public mood in the State is tilted against the national common medical entrance examination - NEET, and almost every major regional party and the Congress have promised to try and abolish the system, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Piyush Goyal raised a few eyebrows on Friday by stating that NEET “need not be scrapped”. 

“I don’t think NEET should be scrapped,” said Goyal, who is BJP’s in-charge for Tamil Nadu, in Chennai. When asked about their ally AIADMK’s promise in its manifesto to “urge the Centre” to scrap NEET, Goyal said: “We will talk to them and convince the AIADMK leadership.” Goyal also said the Centre had already agreed to AIADMK’s request for NEET to be conducted in Tamil.

Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who was campaigning across four districts in the State on Friday, reiterated in Salem that his party “was committed to abolishing the NEET”.

“We do not want anymore suicides in the State because of NEET, which is why we have mentioned in our manifesto that States will have the freedom to opt for or out of NEET,” Gandhi said.

Rahul was referring to the suicide of S Anitha, allegedly over NEET. When Goyal was asked about the Congress’ stand on NEET, he said: “The issue has already been settled. Rahul Gandhi is promising to revive an old system which benefits college managements that take large capitation fees. I am sure people of Tamil Nadu want seats to be given based on merit.” 

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BJP manifesto has nothing for farmers & poor, says Stalin

SALEM: Claiming that the election manifesto of BJP has nothing in favour of farmers and poor people in the country, DMK’s president M K Stalin said, “If DMK’s poll promise is a hero, and that of Congress is a superhero, BJP’s election manifesto is a zero.”  The DMK leader, while addressing a public meeting in the district, was all praise for Congress’ poll manifesto. “I was the first person to announce Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate of the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA). Right from day one of my campaign, I see so much support for Rahul in the State.

When Congress released its manifesto, I wanted to go Delhi to appreciate him as it mirrored policies of the Dravidian movement,” he said, assuring that SPA would win all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu. “When DMK’s manifesto was released, it was subject to criticism. Some promises, which could be fulfilled only by the Centre, were made as we knew that Rahul Gandhi would become the prime minister.

Even Congress’ manifesto reflected our ideologies by assuring to waive farm and educational loans, scrap NEET, solve issues of fishermen and decentralise power,” he said, adding that if Karunanidhi was alive, he too would have praised Rahul for his efforts.

Taking a jibe at BJP government, Stalin referred to their poll promises as dreams which could be realised only after a couple of decades.

“Narendra Modi is acting like a dictator at the Centre. He is, definitely, a chowkidar of rich and corrupt people,” he said.