Chandigarh, August 27, 2020: With illogical insistence on conducting JEE Main and NEET examinations despite the surge of Covid across the country, the Modi government was playing with the lives of millions of youth who had voted it to power, PPCC president Sunil Jakhar said.
Jakhar asked whether the lives of students were worth less for the Modi government than MPs or MLAs. It was for the first time in the history of the Parliament, the seating arrangement of the MPs was being changed on a large scale to ensure their health safety before convening of the Parliament.
“Will it be appropriate to put the health of millions of students who will have to sit together in the examination centres,” he questioned.
The Pradesh Congress chief said that in fact the Modi government was adamant to conduct these examinations only because Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was the first to demand that these examinations should not be held at this critical stage.
The Modi government is now playing with the lives of the people for the sole purpose of discrediting Rahul and that too at a time when the Corona epidemic is at its peak in the country.
“When various types of traffic restrictions were in place, it was not even safe to go out of the house, how could millions of students reach the examination centers. And even if they do arrive, what guarantee does the central government offer that the pandemic will not spread to others with the gatherings there, Jakhar said.
He said that MPs and MLAs were being tested for Corona before the session of Parliament or Vidhan Sabha. Does the government have arrangements to carry out tests for such a huge number of aspirants who seek to appear in the exams?
The skepticism of the central government to justify its wrong decision was a threat to the health of the entire society and a step to weaken the country’s fight against Corona.
Commenting on Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s statement on ‘Silent Majority’, he said that it was not a silent majority but a ‘compulsion of the people being forcibly silenced’.
The Congress leader urged the Modi government to give up its stubbornness and conduct these examinations only when the situation improves a little. Now the government should not compromise on the health and safety of millions of students and their families, he added.
