Blaming non-availability of medical seats in India over the National Eligibility and Entrance Exams (NEET), the call to ban the entrance exam has grown louder.

Several social media posts hint that the death of a Naveen, an Indian student who died in Ukraine could have been averted if all students could access medical education. Some others have highlighted an unreasonable fee as a reason as to why students migrated to study in other countries. Posts also indicated that the NEET qualifications were very stringent, because of which many students could not avail seats in India.

“Despite scoring 96% in 12th Naveen didn’t get a medical seat in Karnataka, moreover many Indians have to depart foreign for their higher studies in the medical field. #UkraineRussiaConflict taking lives of innocent students who didn’t get a seat through #NEET even scoring highest,” said Athavulla, one of the Twitter users.

It may be recollected that Tamil Nadu was one of the first states to oppose NEET. They sought that every state must have autonomy concerning the allocation of medical seats.

Likewise, some from Karnataka also expressed displeasure. They complained that despite Karnataka being a state with the highest number of medical seats, students from other states largely benefited by forcing students from Karnataka to migrate to other countries to pursue medical education.

Chetan Jeeral, another social media user said, “List of colleges offering MBBS state wise. Karnataka has the highest number of seats in India and the domiciles of Karnataka are at loss due to #NEET. Only way to ensure the rural and low economic background students can fulfill their dream of studying medicine is to #BanNeet.”

However, on the contrary, Sumanth Raman, a political analyst said, “Those blaming #NEET for students being stuck in #Ukraine please note. Admission to MBBS in Ukrainian Universities is on the basis of #NEET score. NEET score of 50% and min of 50% in Physics, Chemistry and Bio in school exam needed. How to spin this now?”

Also read: Stalin slams Centre over evacuation, says getting NEET scrapped is immediate goal