Why Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor is calling Delhi NEET topper Tanmay Gupta the 'pride of J&K'

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Tuesday congratulated NEET topper, Tanmay Gupta, for his historic feat. Relatives and friends of the 18-year-old boy thronged his Gandhi Nagar residence to celebrate his achievement.

Tanmay, who hails from Jammu, along with Hyderabad's Mrinal Kutteri and Mumbai's Karthika G Nair shared the top rank by scoring the perfect 720 out of 720 in the NEET-UG exams, whose results were announced on November 1. “Congratulations to Tanmay Gupta from Jammu who created history in NEET 2021 with hard work and determination. The national topper with 720 marks, Tanmay is the pride of J&K. It is a great achievement and the whole J&K is proud of you. My best wishes to all successful students from J&K,” the Lieutenant Governor said in a tweet.

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Tanmay expressed his gratitude to his family and school for getting a good environment to prepare, both in Jammu and later in Delhi. He created history by becoming the first from J&K to be among the national toppers of NEET. “I got a very good environment at home and everybody always supported me. I could say that they are my role models,” said Tanmay, who studied at KC Public school in Jammu till Class 10 before moving to Delhi's DPS, R K Puram, to complete his schooling.

Tanmay said he is very thankful to his teachers for guidance and also his friends for providing him moral support. “The feeling is amazing and cannot be described in words,” he said, adding, “When I was done with the Class 10 board examination, my parents decided to send me to Delhi for further studies and I tried my best to do well.”

His parents, Akshay Gupta and Shivali Gupta, who are both doctors, said it was the toughest decision of their life to send their son to Delhi for studies. They said that their decision was based on Tanmay's Class 10 results when he scored 100 per cent marks in both Science and Mathematics. “We were not expecting such a wonderful result. When we discussed sending him to Delhi, my husband helped me to overcome my emotions. We are very thankful to my parents, who are also doctors, and took proper care of him during his stay in Delhi,” Shivali said.

Akshay said his son is the role model for everyone in the family and his success is his ability to set targets and achieve those targets within a time limit. “He is also very dedicated and hardworking,” he said. Tanmay, who loves swimming, light-hearted TV shows and reading novels, has a message to the students to work hard and remain consistent. “Stick to the NCERT textbooks and do your best without worrying about the results,” he said.

The NEET-UG exam was held on September 12 and over 15.44 lakh candidates had appeared for the exam that was conducted at 3,858 centres in 13 languages. Over 8.70 lakh candidates have qualified the exam.