Congress' interim president Sonia Gandhi has convened a virtual meeting of Congress and allied party Chief Ministers to discuss the centre's decision to conduct JEE, NEET and other entrances during the pandemic. While all the participants opposed the decision, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh suggested that all of them must file a review petition against the Supreme Court's decision to conduct these entrances on the scheduled date. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee too agreed on this.
The meeting is being attended by the Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, along with Gandhi, Banerjee and Singh. Responding to Singh, Soren said that all of them "must go to the Prime Minister or President before approaching the Supreme Court."
"Conducting of examinations will lead to a rise in a number of COVID19 cases in the country. The government of India will be responsible for it. We will jointly fight the battle against the Central government on this issue," said Narayanasamy. Banerjee, who has previously written to the Prime Minister asking him to postpone the entrances said that there has been no response from Modi. "The exams are in September. Why should the lives of students be put at risk?" she sought.
