Rupani calls Mamata 'Divider Didi' over JEE row

Slamming Mamata Banerjee's objection over the engineering entrance examination JEE being conducted 'only' in Gujarati besides English and Hindi, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Thursday dubbed her "Divider Didi".

Taking to Twitter, Rupani also posted a link of a clarification issued by the National Testing Agency on the objection raised by the West Bengal chief minister.

"Dear #DividerDidi, people of your state need development not such divisive stunts. Now that the facts are out, you should apologise to the people for your lies!," Rupani tweeted.

On Wednesday, Banerjee, in a series of tweets, asked why "injustice" is being meted out to other regional languages by conducting JEE (Main) only in Gujarati apart from English and Hindi.

"If Gujarati has to be there, then all regional languages including Bengali must be there," she said.

The National Testing Agency's clarification said that the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) started in 2013 with the idea that all states could use it for engineering admissions.

However, only Gujarat agreed to use JEE (Main) for state engineering colleges, therefore the paper was made available in Gujarati.

In 2014 Maharashtra opted for JEE, but it pulled out in 2016, so the provision of papers in Marathi was stopped, it said.