Furor over Min Pralhad Joshi’s “insensitive and irresponsible” remarks on Indian students abroad

Team Udayavani, Mar 2, 2022, 1:17 PM IST

Bengaluru: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi’s comments about Indian medical students studying abroad have invited a flurry of criticism from all quarters.

On Monday, Pralhad Joshi had said that “90% of Indians who study medicine abroad fail to clear qualifying exams in India,” The Times of India reported.

“He further explained that the total fee for the MBBS course in these countries is somewhere around Rs 35 lakh, including the cost of six years of education, living expenses, coaching, and clearing the screening test on return to India. He said, in India, the fee for an entire MBBS course is around Rs 45 to 55 lakhs, or even more, which only includes the tuition fee for the MBBS course in private colleges, which is the major cause why Indian students go out to study,” Republic TV reported.

Member of Parliament and NCP leader Supriya Sule voiced her criticism on Twitter. She shared the TOI report and wrote “The Situation in #Ukraine is extremely sensitive for both the individuals who are stranded there and their family members who are extremely tensed and anxious. Our focus should be getting all citizens back home safely. I am horrified that certain ministers in the Union Government knowing well that our children are in a life-threatening situation are making such callous, insensitive and irresponsible remarks.”

The Situation in #Ukraine is extremely sensitive for both the individuals who are stranded there and their family members who are extremely tensed and anxious.https://t.co/W3t9VaqfSj

— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) March 1, 2022

Similarly, the Congress party also accused the minister of insulting the students and asked the minister to know the exact circumstances that pushed students to seek education abroad.  “This is the tragedy where the BJP government has no evacuation plan while Pralhad Joshi decries and insults our students in Ukraine. This is a government of only photo ops, no action,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala was quoted as saying by The Tribune.

To drive home his point, on Wednesday, Surjewala tweeted a video clip of the father of Naveen Shekharappa, who had been killed in Ukraine, lamenting that his son failed to secure a medical seat in Karnataka despite scoring 97 percent marks in PUC. Surjewala captioned the video as, “A father who lost all… To A shameless Minister Prahlad Joshi [sic]…”

A father who lost all…..
To
A shameless Minister Prahlad Joshi…#Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar https://t.co/DI5sTi4qqf

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 2, 2022