Oppn corners education minister over NEET in Lok Sabha

The Opposition on Monday sought to corner the government over alleged irregularities roiling this year’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test on the first day of the monsoon session, calling for the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan even as the government rejected allegations that widespread paper leaks had vitiated the exam.

Speaking during question hour, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi said they will keep the pressure on the government and argued there were deep-seated problems in the country’s examination system.

“The issue is there are millions of students in this country who are extremely concerned about what is going on and who are convinced that the Indian examination system is a fraud,” he said during question hour.

Also read: Over 11,000 NEET-UG candidates scored zero, negative marks

Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Akhilesh Yadav also attacked the government and said that it had created a record of paper leaks.“There are some centres where more than 2,000 students have passed. As long as this minister is there, the students will not get justice,” he said in the Lok Sabha.

Later in the day, Pradhan condemned the remarks.

“Maybe Rahul Gandhi understands the fundamentals and maths of unfair practices too well. That explains why the Congress government failed to implement the bills to stop malpractice in educational institutions, including the Prohibition of Unfair Practices Bill, 2010. Can the LoP tell under what compulsions, pressure and for what considerations did the Congress Party refuse to bring laws to curb irregularities?” he said on X.

He also lashed out at Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav.

“The LoP and his cabal are all but shedding crocodile tears. The ground reality on paper leaks during UPA regime and when Shri Akhilesh was at the helm of UP will open a can of worms for both Shri Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav,” Pradhan said on X.

Speaking to media outside the Parliament, Gandhi hit back. “Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should have responded. He spoke about the Supreme Court and PM Modi but he is not able to say what he is doing on this. NEET is a very important issue for the youth. We have always asked for discussion in the Parliament but the government is not interested. We will keep raising this issue and keep pressurizing the government.”

The NEET-UG examination in 2024 saw 2.4 million students appearing at 4,750 centres across 571 cities worldwide. However, the exam was soon engulfed in chaos and widespread protests across India, with thousands of students demonstrating against allegations of question paper leaks, inflated marking, and arbitrary allowance of grace marks. Opposition parties called for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the allegations but the government has ruled out a retest, maintaining that the leaks were localised and arguing that cancelling the exam would be unfair to the successful candidates. A number of other top examinations such as UGC-NET have also been postponed. The case is currency being heard by the Supreme Court.

The first day of the monsoon session began with Congress MP Manickam Tagore giving an adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha, demanding a discussion on the NEET controversy. In his notice, Tagore urged the House to suspend all listed business of the day to discuss the “unprecedented cases of paper leaks in conduct of exams including NEET-UG and UGC NET and the failure of National Testing Agency (NTA).”

During question hour, Gandhi said that there were millions of students who were concerned about what was going on and who were convinced that the Indian examination system was a fraud.“This is why we are asking simple questions to the honourable minister. As this is a systemic issue, what exactly are you doing to fix the issue at a systemic level?” he asked in Parliament.

Yadav asked the government to generate a list of students from respective exam centres who got high marks.

Pradhan condemned the statements. “A lie will not become the truth just by shouting…. I condemn that he [Rahul Gandhi] called that country’s examination system rubbish, he said.

The minister asserted that there was no evidence of paper leaks in the last seven years.

As the Opposition sought to turn up the heat on paper leaks, speaker Om Birla said it was not right to raise questions about all exams and members should discuss the need of developing a better examination system.

“There is no evidence of paper leaks in the last seven years in any numbers...,” Pradhan said in response to Tagore claiming that there were 70 paper leaks in seven years.

Since setting up NTA, more than 240 examinations were conducted, more than 50 million students applied and more than 45 million students took the test, the minister said.

Also read: SC seeks IIT Delhi’s help to resolve NEET-UG question controversy

Tagore wanted to know about the steps taken to address the issue of exam paper leaks and wondered whether the minister will resign.

In response, Pradhan said, “I am here at the mercy of my leader, the prime minister, and whenever accountability comes, my government is collectively answerable to that”.

Regarding alleged anomalies and malpractices, Pradhan asserted, “We are hiding nothing... everything is on record.”

Responding to Yadav, Pradhan pointed out that students from all corners of the country had succeeded and that centre-wise results of all NEET-UG candidates had revealed nothing untoward.

NTA made the results public on Saturday after the directions of the Supreme Court.

NK Premachandran, member of Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), said that the credibility of competitive exams was lost, and demanded a joint parliamentary committee probe into the NEET-UG allegations.

Countering him, Pradhan said, “The government has nothing to hide, and we have put all facts in front of the Supreme Court.”

Congress MP Hibi Eden called the NEET issue “the biggest scam”. “NTA faced widespread allegations of irregularities and paper leaks, notably with 67 top-ranking candidates scoring 99.99 percentile, including six from a single examination centre in Haryana. Who owns these centres?” the Ernakulam MP said.

Speaking to media outside the Parliament, Gandhi attacked the government. “Dharmendra Pradhan spoke about the Supreme Court and PM Modi but he is not able to say what he is doing on this. NEET is a very important issue for the youth. We have always asked for discussion in the Parliament but the government is not interested.”

The face-off came on a day when several MPs asked questions related to NTA and NEET-UG.

Responding to a written question asked by Kanimozhi Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on the number of permanent staff working in NTA, minister of state for education Sukanta Majumdar said that the number of employees working on deputation in NTA is 22, contractual employees is 39 and outsourced staff/employees is 132.

Responding to another question by DMK MP Kanimozhi, the MoS informed Parliament that 16 exams were postponed by NTA due to different reasons since its inception in 2018. The reasons for postponement included the pandemic, administrative reasons, logistical reasons and technical issues.

“Since its inception in 2018, NTA has successfully conducted over 240 examinations involving over 5.4 crores students..Since most of the examinations conducted by NTA are held in multiple-subjects, multiple-shifts and span over a number of days, there have been instances due to unforeseen circumstances like Covid-19 pandemic, logistical and technical issues, administrative issues, legal orders etc, when examination dates initially notified in respect of specific subjects or shifts could not be adhered to,” the MoS said in his response.