Not So Neat: How The Media Tried To Whip Up Hysteria Over NEET In Tamil Nadu

Unfortunately for the electronic media in Tamil Nadu, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical colleges across India has got over. After trying to whip up passions over some students in the state having to go to other states to appear for NEET, the electronic media in Tamil Nadu will now have to find a new issue to attract eyeballs and have the ignorant and innocent public glued to the idiot box.

It is for the second year in a row that the media has gone to town trying to run down NEET. Last year, NEET was opposed totally as something unwanted, but this year, the media found a handy issue – some students having to write the exam in other states – to try and provoke the common man. In one way, the late J Jayalalithaa, who slammed more than 200 defamatory cases against the media stands vindicated, going by the media’s penchant to sensationalise anything and everything.

Ever since her death, the media has used every opportunity to whip up passions on issues to try and turn the public against the central government. In that, swept under the carpet, are efforts by some anti-national forces to foment trouble in the state. First, it was a row over a ban on jallikattu in the state, next it was over the Neduvasal hydrocarbon project, then the Sterlite issue in Tuticorin followed by the demand to set up Cauvery Monitoring Board, and now the issue of students having to go outside Tamil Nadu to appear for NEET. Tamil Nadu’s electronic media never had it so good to play up issues.

In each of these cases, the electronic media went out of its way to provoke the public and sort of create an anti-Centre sentiment in Tamil Nadu. No doubt, anything and everything against the Centre sells in Tamil Nadu as was shown by Jayalalithaa during her protest to implement the interim ruling of Cauvery tribunal in 1993.

Getting back to the NEET controversy this year, no doubt media and journalists, even from the print media, had a big hand in the initial reactions against the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the central government on some students having to write the tests outside the state. Here is a sample of a so-called expert on electronic media jumping the gun on NEET.

And here is an example of a media person playing up the controversy without even ascertaining how any student from Tamil Nadu was actually travelling outside to write the NEET exam. These media persons are supposedly ones who have good contacts. Wouldn’t it have been prudent on their part to find out the truth rather than misrepresenting facts?

And here is another who wants all to be enraged over the issue, 24 hours before the Supreme Court could decide on a CBSE petition to stay the Madras High Court order asking it to set up more centres for students to take NEET.

Agreed, there was confusion in CBSE on the number of students going outside Tamil Nadu to write NEET. While one official put the figure at 5,371, there were some who put it around 1,500. The Human Resources Ministry put the figure of those taking exams outside of Tamil Nadu at 3,685.

Even going by the highest figure, the provocations looked out of place with more than 110,000 candidates writing the test in Tami Nadu. Nor have these critics taken note of the CBSE clarification that the centres have been allotted as the candidates had chosen them as their second or third choice.

On 6 May, a television channel close to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), telecast news only on NEET exam centres for more than 15 minutes of the 30-minute news programme. The DMK itself attributed motives to students writing NEET outside Tamil Nadu, saying the central and state governments were keen on depriving the state students of their welfare.

But what has been more hilarious is the crocodile tears shed over some students going to Rajasthan to take the tests. A newspaper report said the family had to incur Rs 40,000 on flight tickets alone plus additional costs for lodging for their son to take the tests at Jaipur. The newspaper, however, quietly underplayed the fact that the Rs 40,000 for tickets was for a family of three to Rajasthan and back. The report quoted the student as saying at least 15 more from the state were writing the test but no information was given on those students.

The raising of the issue resulted in the Rajasthan Tamil Sangam coming forward to help any student in need. But for all the drama over students writing NEET in Rajasthan, this is what finally happened.

Last year, much drama was created over NEET since Tamil Nadu had to mandatorily implement the system as ordered by the Supreme Court. An ordinance was planned but then it didn’t happen due to political problems in the state. Students in the state felt let down by the state government’s repeated assurance that NEET would not happen. But then it happened with 82,000 students writing the entrance test to medical colleges. (This year, the number has gone up 31 per cent.)

A conspiracy theory is also doing the rounds on social media on why issues relating to NEET are being played up. The theory is that many private medical colleges used to charge Rs 1 crore as capitation fees from students aspiring to do medicine. Now with NEET being introduced in Tamil Nadu, these colleges has been deprived of that opportunity. For example, a medical college being run by a educationist, who also owns a television channel, could allocate 64 seats under management quota out of the total 150 seats it offers to medical aspirants.

Under NEET, the medical college will now have to allot 23 seats for all-India rank students, while the rest 127 will have to be allocated as per Tamil Nadu’s 69 per cent reservation quota. The allegation now against the television channel is that it is leading the campaign against NEET and forcing others to follow suit.

Another fact that cannot be ignored is that NEET now ensures that students who learn their lessons by-heart and reproduce verbatim in their answer sheets cannot expect to get medical seats anymore. They will now have to write exams that will test their knowledge of the subject more thoroughly.

The whole controversy on NEET in Tamil Nadu seems to be agenda-driven. One reason is try and run down the central government at every opportunity and the electronic media in Tamil Nadu seems to be very keen on this. Second, as the conspiracy theory goes, the agenda could have been driven by vested interests of private medical colleges that have to fall in line due to NEET. The media's intention also seemed to be as if the Centre had something against students in Tamil Nadu and wanted to punish them for it.

The unfortunate development, then, is that Tamil Nadu media, in general, and electronic media, in particular, are fast losing their credibility. Mindless social media messages by journalists are only adding to this sad saga. Surely, the media has failed in this agenda. What’s next for them?