90% of Indian students who go abroad fail NEET, says Union Miner; Oppn demands apology
In a controversial remark, Union Miner Pralhad Joshi Tuesday said 90 per cent of students who go abroad fail the National Entrance cum Entrance Test (NEET), the qualifying exam for studying medicine in India. However, Joshi added that this was not the time to debate why students were moving out to study medicine.
His statement, said to a group of reporters, came on the day India marked its first casualty in the Russia-Ukraine war. A 21-year-old fourth-year MBBS student died amid shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, reacting to the remarks said, “The Modi government has left 20,000 children on their own, turning their backs on responsibility and finding faults among Indian students who have gone to Ukraine. It’s embarrassing. It is the culmination of insensitivity and pride of power. Apologize to the children and their families.”
प्रह्लाद जोशी जी,
मोदी सरकार ने 20,000 बच्चों को अपने हाल पर छोड़ दिया, जुम्मेवारी से पीठ दिखा दी और कमियाँ यूक्रेन गए भारतीय छात्रों में से निकाल रहे हैं।
यह शर्मनाक है। यह असंवेदनशीलता और सत्ता के गुरूर की पराकाष्ठा है।
बच्चों और उनके परिवारों से माफ़ी माँगे।#UkraineWar https://t.co/1sGea2VqIH
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 1, 2022
Navjyotu Patnaik of the Congress party, too, hit out at the miner for his remarks. “So, Joshi ji, are you saying this is the reason why our stranded medical students in Ukraine don’t have a right to return to India safely? (sic),” he said in a tweet.
Last week, Prime Miner Narendra Modi called upon the private sector to expand its participation with the aim to produce maximum doctors within the country, noting that a large number of students pursue medical education from smaller countries. “Today our children are going to smaller countries to study, especially for medical education. They go despite the language barrier. Millions of rupees are going out of the country. Can’t our private sector enter this field in a big way? Can’t our state governments make policies so that India can produce a maximum number of doctors,” Modi had said.
