After 2 letters in 24 hours, Mamata joins forces with Sonia against NEET, JEE

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On Tuesday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the second time seeking his intervention to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) due to be held in September. Banerjee’s second letter to Modi on the issue was written a day before she and Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi hold a virtual meet with the chief ministers of non-BJP ruled states in a bid to mobilize political support for their demand for postponement of the two critical joint entrance examinations on Wednesday afternoon, according to a top TMC leader close to the Bengal chief minister.

Banerjee had sent a letter to Modi on Monday for the first time requesting the Prime Minister to postpone the NEET and JEE examinations. In her second letter written on Tuesday, Banerjee said Centre should consider appealing the Supreme Court decision on holding of the examinations.

Mamata wrote on Tuesday, I am aware that the Supreme Court has given a verdict on holding of JEE and NEET examinations and the Central government had been issuing instructions to go ahead with it accordingly. However, I would like to request your kind intervention and to consider the Central government making an appeal to the apex court to review its decision in the interest of the student community. We are really worried and concerned. Such intervention is very much essential in the larger interest of the students to facilitate creating a situation whereby the students will neither be subjected to grave health risk nor they will be facing a career risk

The West Bengal government received a letter from the National Testing Agency on Tuesday for conducting the JEE and NEET examinations starting from September 1, prompting Banerjee to write to Modi for the second time within a span of 24 hours.

On Sunday, Adhir Ranjan Chowdury, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, also wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to postpone the examinations. Students in West Bengal and several other states have been demanding postponement of these examinations over the past few days. The All India Students Association (AISA), a Left front organisation, has planned protests in Kolkata and other cities.