The Tamil Nadu government should reject the report submitted to it by the one-man committee headed by retired Madras High Court judge Justice K. Chandru, which recommended prohibiting students from wearing (caste-related) coloured wristbands, rings or forehead marks, BJP leader H. Raja said in Chennai on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.
Justice Chandru’s committee was constituted in the wake of an incident at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district in August 2023, in which two school children belonging to the Scheduled Castes were brutally assaulted by a group of students from an intermediate caste.
Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the BJP core committee meeting at the party’s Tamil Nadu headquarters, Mr. Raja contended: “The report by Mr. Chandru is controversial as it is targeted at Hindus. How could the report object to tilak [forehead markings]? The State government should reject the report in its entirety.”
On the calls by several political parties for the Centre to do away with the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the recent edition of which has been mired in irregularities, BJP leader and former Governor of Telangana Tamilisai Soundararajan said: “Students will not accept the campaign against NEET. Many students from marginalised sections of society are getting admitted to medical colleges because of NEET. The exam has given hope to students. Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan has promised to take strict action over the administrative discrepancies in the NEET UG 2024 exam.”
Ms. Soundararajan also said she had never spoken against the party and its leadership, referring to reports in the media about about her comments over the BJP-AIADMK split and speculations that this had led to discord between her and party president K. Annamalai. “My comments were twisted. I never spoke against anyone and we all are together and confident for the 2026 Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections.”
Published - June 19, 2024 03:41 pm IST
