Hours after the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the June UGC-NET exam, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the NEET UG 2024 exam row, asking him to take responsibility for the paper leak issue. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kharge wrote, “You “discuss exams” a lot, when will you “discuss NEET exam”? Cancellation of UGC-NET exam is a victory of the spirit of millions of students. This is the defeat of the arrogance of the Modi government due to which they made a despicable attempt to trample the future of our youth.” “The Union Education Minister had earlier said that no paper was leaked in NEET. When arrests are made of education mafia in Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana, the Education Minister accepts that some scam has taken place!” he said. The Congress chief asked, “When will the NEET exam be cancelled?” “Modi Ji, please take the responsibility of stopping your government’s rigging and paper leak in NEET exam too!” Kharge added. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of corruption and asked the central government to take responsibility for the “lax system” in India’s education sector. “The laxity and corruption of the BJP government is fatal for the youth. After the news of scam in NEET exam, now the NET exam to be held on 18th June has also been cancelled due to the fear of irregularities,” Priyanka Gandhi wrote on the microblogging site. “Will accountability be fixed now? Will the education minister take responsibility for this lax system?” she asked. On Wednesday, the National Testing Agency cancelled the UGC-National Eligibility Test after reports emerged that the integrity of the examination may have been compromised. In a late-night statement, the ministry of education said that a fresh examination will be conducted, for which information would be shared separately. Simultaneously, the matter is being handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a thorough investigation. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education has also sought a detailed report from the Economic Offences Unit of the Bihar Police over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET(UG) examination 2024 in Patna. Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held on May 5. Aspirants have raised the issue of leakage of the question paper, awarding compensatory marks and anomalies in the question of NEET-UG 2024. (With inputs from agencies)
