BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has locked horns with Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' over the attendance number of NEET-JEE.
Over the past couple of days, a war of words has ensued between the two, with the MP disputing Pokhriyal's data on the number of attendees for the NEET-JEE exam this year.
Swamy vs Pokhriyal
Swamy had tweeted on Wednesday saying that only 8 lakh students appeared for the exam, even though a lot more had downloaded admit cards.
"I just accurate count on how many students took the JEE exams this last week: out 18 lakhs who downloaded passes only 8 lakhs turned up to take up the exam. What a disgrace for the nation which extols vidya and gyan!! (sic)," Swamy had tweeted.
Responding to this post, Pokhriyal on Wednesday, 9 August, tweeted that 8.58 lakh students (and not 18 lakhs, as Swamy had mentioned) had downloaded admit cards.
"Out of 8.58 lakh #JEEMains applicants, 6.35 lakh appeared for the exam. Central & respective State Governments assured all possible assistance to the students, for which I compliment all State Governments as well. This entire effort displayed the spirit of cooperative federalism," Pokhriyal tweeted.
"#JEEMains Exams are held twice in a year. The previous one was held in January this year. Several students who didn't appear for the exam in Sept may have done well in the January exam hence did not feel the need to sit for the exam this time. We are ascertaining those numbers," he further added.
Thereafter, once again, replying to Pokhriyal, Swamy tweeted the following saying that he had a copy of the official figure that the government gave to the Supreme Court:
“I will soon tweet what the Ministry of Education stated to the Supreme Court as candidates registered state wide and abroad at 9,53,473 at 660 centres. The Minister’s tweet for me to see his “facts” was 8.58 lakhs. Now who’s is official?”
He also posted a sheet, which puts the number of applicants at 9.5 lakhs.
74% Students Appeared For JEE Mains: Report
At least 74 percent candidates who had registered for JEE-Mains appeared for the exam last week whereas as the attendance figures dipped from 94.32% in the January session, reported PTI.
The JEE exams are held twice a year.
Last year, the attendance in the January and April edition of the exam was 94.11% and 94.15% respectively.
Quoting data from the Education Ministry, PTI said that out of 8.58 lakh applicants, 6.35 lakh had appeared for the engineering test from 1 to 6 September.
(With inputs from PTI)
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