In complete anti people -CMC Vellore which enjoys lot of Tax exemptions from Tamilnadu Government - has been admitting only Keralite Christians only- not even giving seats to SC Scheduled caste Tamils.
NEET has put a break- and just one student is admitted
The institution’s decision is consequent to being forced to give up its own admission process and take students through single window counselling, based on NEET marks.
The Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore has decided to suspend admissions to its MBBS and super specialities courses for 2017-2018 as it is unable to follow its established admission process after the NEET became operational.
It will admit just one candidate in MBBS and one student in super specialities owing to prior commitments. As a result, 99 seats in MBBS and 61 in the super specialities will not be filled, the CMC’s Council decided on Saturday.
The move is seen as a consequence of the post-NEET scenario where the government decreed that all admissions to medical courses would be filled up through single window counselling on the basis of NEET marks.
The MBBS course will be run for a single student, a Central Government nominee who happens to be the son of a martyr this year, and a single candidate will be admitted to the DM Cardiology, as mandated by a Supreme Court order earlier this year, explained Sunil Chandy, Director, CMC.
PG admissions to 182 courses were filled up as per usual admission process as the prescription of single window counselling came at the eleventh hour by which time the College had completed its admissions, and as per the Notification issued by the National Board of Examinations. The Supreme Court ratified this in favour of the college, Solomon Sathishkumar, principal-in-charge, CMC, said.
“The Council was perturbed by the position taken by the MCI and the Government of India to whittle down or obliterate the benefit of Article 30 (1) to a proven institution,” says Krishna Srinivasan, senior lawyer who has appeared for the college over several decades.
Article 30(1) guarantees minorities, both religious and linguistic, the right “to establish and administer educational institutions” of their choice. This right, incidentally, has been recognised from the year 1957 by a series of judgments of the Supreme Court, including the landmark decision rendered by the eleven-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the Pai case.
Mr Srinivasan said, “We have challenged the Regulations prescribing common counselling for both UG and PG courses in the Supreme Court, in which we have also filed two interlocutory petitions, one for under graduate admissions, and another for admission to super specialities. In October, the Court will decide the validity of our plea to make our own admissions.”
“We are not happy to do this. It will also translate to a deficit in our frontline patient management systems. It is a sacrifice we are making. But we have to judge a student by our objective of the role we envision for our candidates,” Dr. Chandy said.
“The government defines merit as marks alone. For the kind of doctors we need, we have to assess suitability criteria, including commitment to serving the public, leadership skills, and ability to work as part of our team, enshrined in our three-day selection process. This does not come through in the current admission system.”
Thomas Samuel Ram, CMC Council secretary, said, “We want to run the course, but our hands are tied. Ours is a system that has been recognised and even commended by several judgements as fair and non-exploitative. The fees (₹3000 per annum) is heavily subsidised by patient care.” He added that the assessment of a candidate is against a particular role the college expects him or her to perform.
Out of the 100 seats available for the MBBS course, 85 seats are reserved for the minority community, in this case, Christians and 15 seats are in the open category. Students admitted under the minority category are required to serve in one of the mission hospitals run by the society for two years after completing the course.
“Even the other students are inspired, and are glad for opportunities to serve in remote locations. Ninety per cent of our students continue to stay and serve,” said Dr. Chandy. He explained that students come from all over the country, and the heavily-subsidised education allows them students from different backgrounds to take up a course. In some instances, mission hospitals support under privileged children with aptitude from their areas to study at CMC. The history of the college is replete with stories of students returning home to establish medical facilities, in some instances, for the first ever time, he adds, quoting some examples.
Mr. Srinivasan pointed out that the CMC’s admission system has been in place since 1946 and has been enriched through inputs from experts in different fields. In 1993 when CMC was asked to surrender 50% of its seats pursuant to the Unnikrishnan judgement which framed a scheme for admission to professional colleges, the court recognised the relevance of CMC’s admission process and carved it out as an exception.
Meet Siddhant Nair, the ONLY student who got an MBBS seat at CMC Vellore this year
Not allowed to carry on admission their way, CMC Vellore has taken the bold and unconventional move of admitting just one student — the son of a martyr based out of Mumbai
CMC's MBBS course is going to be a lonesome place for a while | Facebook
The Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore has been fighting to keep their admission and counselling process in-house for as long as NEET and a call for single-window counselling have been floating around. With the Supreme Court clamping down on all MBBS admissions in Tamil Nadu this year, they've chosen to respond in the most Gandhian way possible. Non-cooperation. The college council decided to take an uncanny, un-medical college stance by admitting just 1 student to their MBBS programme, against the 100 seats that they are allowed to admit by the MCI.
Explaining why they've taken this unusual stance, Dr Sunil Thomas Chandy, Director of CMC, Vellore, explained, "Every year we have a candidate who has been nominated by the government of India, who is usually the child of a soldier. That candidate came, we admitted him and we have started classes for him. We are not against the government or the judiciary. We have great faith in the judiciary. We have not been able to conduct our regular admissions despite accepting NEET because we challenged common counselling. Yet, we have as an institution decided to run this year's course as a whole for the one student who was nominated by the government."
Keeping the faith:Dr Sunil Chandy says they are hopeful that the courts will return a favourable decision
So who's that one, solitary student who's an MBBS batch unto himself?
Meet Siddhant Nair, son of the late Major Rajesh Nair, an officer martyred in the line of duty at Doda and Supriya Nair, a counselling psychologist. Siddhant got the 3rd rank in the Defense Quota, (nominated by the Government of India) and he had 15 colleges to choose from. He even joined (Army College of Medical Science) ACMS initially, but after a lot of research and deliberation, chose to go to CMC because he was particular about community service. "It is the only private college in TN that has opened up its doors just for a defense quota student. so even though he got in other top colleges, he chose to come to CMC, said his mother, who has been thrilled with her son's decision.
Did they know that he was going to be the only student around, something hadn't happened since CMC started the MBBS course in 1942? "We were told that he could be the only student for a while but we do hope that more students join later at least. We completely understand that the institute is focused on community service and they should be allowed to admit students who they think will commit to serving the society," she said and added of her son who started classes on Monday, "I'm just not worried about Siddhant, since it is a community college I am sure that they will ensure he has friends. His classes would be integrated with the seniors or he'll work with his teachers, either way, I know that he will be fine because of the atmosphere here. Also, he is a very adaptive boy, so he will be able to get used to it in no time."
One to tango:Siddhant Nair before he got to CMC
Inverted Ratio: Ten teachers, One Student
And what about the teachers? "Our teachers are determined. We will have regular lectures. He will have all the attention. Usually, it's one lecturer and hundred students. Now it will be 10 lecturers for one student. the point is we want to run the course. We are not against running the course," said Dr Chandy with determination. With over 7000 patients visiting their OPD every single day, it's not like there will ever be a dearth of work at a medical behemoth like CMC.
Supriya was all praise for the college administration because they kept their promise to her and her son despite all the turmoil, "We were informed that there were chances that counselling might not happen but we would be assured a seat and they kept their word," she explained.
Way forward:Supriya Nair is immensely psyched about her son getting into CMC, Vellore
Incidentally, Siddhant has always wanted to do medicine, always reading medical journals and was always brushing up his medical terminology and vocabulary, "His father was martyred in 2001 while fighting militants. He has lived through that and ever since he has wanted to give back to society. It is something he got from his father. So, it is his dream come true to study at CMC," she concluded.
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