Yesterday, the government attempted to pull the wool over the eyes of the nation. In a defence that can only be described as academic gaslighting, officials suggested that since every NEET PG aspirant has already “qualified” NEET UG and completed an MBBS, their performance in the postgraduate entrance is secondary.
They argued that low, or even negative, scores do not reflect a lack of competency.
As an editor who has tracked medical education for over two decades, I say this: This isn’t just a policy shift; it is a surrender of medical excellence.
To suggest that a student who cannot score a single positive mark in a specialised entrance exam after five and a half years of medical training is “competent” is not just logically flawed, it is dangerous for the future of Indian healthcare.
This is a competency crisis, plain and simple.
“QUALIFIED” GRADUATE IS A MYTH
The government’s primary defense is that these students are already doctors. But let’s look at the real-world trajectory of merit.
Historical data shows a near-perfect correlation between NEET UG toppers and NEET PG success. Students who secure ranks in the top 1% of NEET UG, typically those who occupy seats in AIIMS, MAMC (Maulana Azad Medical College), or KGMU (King George’s Medical University), consistently populate the top 5% of NEET PG.
For such students, the PG entrance is a validation of a five-year journey of rigour.
However, we are now seeing a terrifying decoupling. We are seeing students who “qualified” NEET UG at the lowest possible percentile (thanks to the expansion of private seats) failing to hit even the 20th percentile in PG.
If the MBBS degree was the “great equaliser” the government claims it is, these five years should have bridged the gap. Instead, the gap has widened into a chasm.
Before we proceed, let’s address the “management quota” elephant in the room. These are the numbers that the authorities won’t mention. When we look at the candidates scoring in the bottom decile, those with scores ranging from -40 to 20 out of 800, a pattern emerges.
Over 85% of candidates who score in the negative or near-zero range in NEET PG are those who entered the medical system via high-fee management seats in private colleges with low NEET UG scores.
These are not “bright students having a bad day.” These are students who used financial muscle to bypass the meritocratic filter at the UG level and have now spent five years in private institutions that prioritise “passing” students over “training” doctors.
To now allow them into surgical theatres and specialised clinics via a “zero percentile” eligibility is to institutionalise mediocrity.
VOICES FROM THE FRONTLINES
The medical fraternity is not buying the government’s “MBBS is enough” narrative.
A PG entrance exam is a test of clinical decision-making. If a candidate scores negative marks, it means their clinical logic is not just ‘zero,’ it is actively wrong. In a hospital, a ‘wrong’ decision is a dead patient. This isn’t about filling seats; it’s about the safety of the Indian public. – Dr. Sharad Menon, Medical educator, PGIIMER
Dr. Rajeev Ranjan Routray, a senior consultant and academician at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar), is equally scathing in his comments.
The government’s logic implies that once you pass the 10th standard, you are fit to be a nuclear physicist. Medical knowledge is cumulative. If the foundation (UG) was weak and the structure (PG entrance) shows the building is tilting, you don’t ignore the tilt. You have no choice but to fix the foundation. – ,
COMPETENCY IS THE REAL CASUALTY
The government’s stance suggests that the NEET PG is merely a “placement test” for empty seats. But, it is not. It’s a filter designed to ensure that the person performing your mother’s neurosurgery or managing your child’s cardiac arrest has the cognitive capacity to handle the complexity of the task.
By lowering the bar to the floor, we are telling the world that Indian medical degrees are for sale. We are telling the hardworking topper from a rural village that their 700+ score is worth the same as a candidate who got a -10, provided the latter has a deep enough pocket to pay for a private PG seat.
A “qualified” NEET UG score from six years ago is not a lifetime licence to be incompetent. If a student cannot demonstrate basic proficiency after 5,000 hours of clinical training and theory, it is a failure of the institution that granted them the MBBS and a failure of the student’s own aptitude.
To the Ministry of Health, we say this: Stop defending the indefensible. Filling seats in private medical colleges should never take precedence over the quality of the hands that hold the scalpel. This isn’t a statistical adjustment, it’s a competency crisis that will haunt Indian healthcare for decades to come.
Merit must be non-negotiable. Anything less is a betrayal of the patient.
