As the nation has been witnessing strong protests from the students against the Central government to pay heed to their demands to defer the JEE-Mains and NEET exams, which have been scheduled to be held in September, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, the national leaders and Chief Ministers of various states have been lending their support to the students and urging the Center to postpone the exams. 

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has been extending his voice for the students and urging the Central ruling party to defer the national exams. He has been appealing to the Prime Minister to postpone the exams by citing the COVID-19 outbreak. Swamy had directly attacked the Center in its posture of conducting the exams and said that imposing the exams on the students will be a giant mistake and it would lead to dire consequences.  

By citing that the implementation of exams amid the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty would lead to suicides, Swamy said that Prime Minister Modi must take a call and order the postponement. Following Swamy's attack against the center, national leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Naveen Patnaik, and Kapil Sibal had demanded the Center to defer the examinations.

However, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which schedules and conducts the national entrance exams, said that there is no place for postponement and exams would be conducted as per the schedule and the agency had highlighted the Supreme Court order, which dismissed the petitions to defer the exams. While there has been a nationwide outcry to postpone the exams, there have been a handful of voices that have been asking the Center not to postpone the exams and to go ahead with the proposed schedule. 

The Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi said that delay in holding the JEE and NEET exams will seriously hurt their studies and called to conduct as per schedule. Voicing against the director of the nation's top institute, Subramanian Swamy said that the lockdown has seriously hurt the economy and asked whether the Prime Minister was wrong in imposing the lockdown. 

By taking to Twitter, Swamy said, "IIT Delhi Director says delay in holding NEET/JEE exams will seriously hurt studies. But Lockdown has seriously hurt the economy therefore was PM wrong in imposing it? Even today there is lockout in many states." The BJP leader's remark has come when the Chief Ministers of seven non-BJP ruling states have decided to approach the Supreme Court to seek directive to postpone the JEE and NEET exams. 

IIT Delhi Director says delay in holding NEET/JEE exams will seriously hurt studies. But Lockdown has seriously hurt the economy therefore was PM wrong in imposing it? Even today there is lockout in many states.

— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 26, 2020

According to the NTA, the NEET exam will be taking place on September 13 while JEE-Mains will be conducted from September 1 to 6. The agency has said it has made necessary arrangements at the examination centers and the students will be given fresh three-ply masks and they would be allowed to enter the exam hall after thermal screening and the candidates those have reported with above 99.4 degrees temperature would be allowed to write exams in the isolation rooms. The agency said that as many as 8.58 lakh candidates have registered for JEE-Mains and 15.97 lakh for NEET (UG) in the year 2020-21.