The cancellation of NEET this year, following allegations of paper leak, had become the focal point around which the youth gathered in thousands to protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in June-July this year.The protests are over, but they have reignited past discussions around the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), and how it should be conducted.AdvertisementSo far, two strong but competing arguments have kept policy makers, politicians and academics engaged: i) should not states, which also legislate on education, be allowed to conduct exams for admission to medical colleges set up by them and those by the private sector in their region? and, ii) should not there be a basic minimum national standard for admitting students into medical colleges, whichever state they might be in?Conversations with officers in states and the Centre over the last two months bring to fore certain new aspects.Number 1: A top police officer of a big city digressed from a discussion on how the Delhi police could have done better to avoid the terrible showdown with the youth at Jantar Mantar on July 20. “Had it not been for NEET… if only states were the owners of the medical exams and admissions… the protests would not have happened in the national capital,” he said.AdvertisementGiven a choice, his cadre state, ruled by the BJP, would be only too keen to reclaim ownership of medical entrance exams, the officer said. But then the Centre, also under the BJP, had, in its wisdom, fought a long legal battle going up to the Supreme Court, to implement NEET. No BJP Chief Minister of a state will now risk going against this.The officer did not say it in as many words, but he linked law and order to NEET ownership. Isn’t the Centre better off with states taking charge of the exam? The unitary character of the exam had indeed directed student anger towards Delhi and the Union Ministry of Education. It forced Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to step down.Number 2: It’s not just about law and order; it is also about the administration of a country-wide exam. Consider the numbers for the May 3 NEET exam: 22 lakh students, 5,432 centres, 551 cities. Conducting such an exam at the same time on the same day in a country of this size involves phenomenal planning and logistics. From the integrity of paper-setters to safe and secure transportation of question papers, the challenges are numerous. None is insurmountable, though. For instance, when the NEET re-exam was to be conducted on June 21 with just six weeks of lead time, the government did not mind pressing into service the Indian Air Force for delivering question papers in the nick of time at different locations.you may likeBut the problem is not of scale. It is the inability to insulate a local problem. An officer in the Centre, who was roped in to ensure an orderly conduct of the June 21 retest, likened NEET to a super-tanker. A small chink can bring down the entire supertanker. A leak of a paper in a particular city or an irregularity in a few centres can potentially wreck the entire examination. When there are already so many reasons for the youth to be disoriented, an exam cancellation can trigger a nationwide movement, as it did recently.Number 3: Another officer pointed to the blindspots many in the system carry with them. More than a decade ago, just after the BJP came to power in the Centre, a meeting was called to discuss NEET. When Tamil Nadu, one of the most vocal opponents of NEET, put forth its views, an officer in the Ministry of Education, who was from north India, said many exams are cancelled in his state and NEET would set this right. To this, the Tamil Nadu officer recalled his one-sentence reply: “This might be the case in your state, not in mine.”There are reasons why the Centre did what it did, and these will always be open to question and debate in India’s federal polity. Memory is short, but the idea of a common all-India examination as a qualifier for admissions to all medical colleges, first found mention in December 2010. The change proposed by the Medical Council of India (now the National Medical Commission) was intended to ease the academic pressure on students. The first NEET examination was held by the CBSE in 2013 when the Congress-led UPA was in power. The BJP carried forward this agenda with full vigour and seriousness despite strident opposition from states such as Tamil Nadu.The writer is Managing Editor, The Indian Express