Chorus Grows for Cancelling NEET Exam After NTA Calls Off ‘Compromised’ NET-UGC

New Delhi: The dust over paper leaks and the NEET exam fiasco was still in the air, when late Wednesday evening the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced cancellation of the NET-UGC (National Eligibility Test- University Grants Commission) exams held a day before, sparking more outrage across the country, adding to the chorus for cancelling NEET (for medical courses) exams as well.

Students are already out on the streets, and now Opposition parties are planning to join them in demanding the scrapping of NTA for its failure to conduct free and fair exams for lakhs of students waiting to get admission in medicine, graduation, post-graduation and technical courses. The worst hit are students from the marginalised sections, whose parents take loans for coaching, fill up application forms and pay for travel to far-flung exam centres.

The Congress termed the BJP-led NDA as a “paper leak government” and questioned if the education minister, who had earlier denied any irregularities in the NEET exam, would take responsibility now.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Paroksha pe Charcha” programme and questioned his silence over the NEET medical exam and UGC-NET exam irregularities. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“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!

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!”

CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas, while posting portions of the NET exam paper, which included a question on the Pran Pratishtha wrote on X:

“When NEET to NET collapses..see how saffronisation done; NET qstsn for a Theatre student – Ayodhya pran pratishta date, how Hanuman is described, the sloka in Ramayana, beheaded but kept alive in Mahabharata, Hindi exponent….How do we intend to mould our next generation?!”

Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Rajya Sabha MP, Manoj Kumar Jha on X:

“You had to scrap #NET and you must scrap #NEET now as there is ample proof that this examination was compromised. And it is time to acknowledge that the #NTA is a fraud.”

Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram also questioned the role of NTA and called for greater role of states. In a post on X, he wrote:

“First, the alleged leaks and the scam about grace marks surrounding NEET

Now, the UGC-NET exam held on Tuesday is canceled

Both exams were conducted by NTA. Should not someone be held accountable and asked to step down or be replaced?

Who will compensate the students and parents who have lost precious year(s) and huge money?

We should leave the subject of entrance/eligibility tests to the state governments. A state may opt for an NTA-conducted exam, but it should have the liberty to conduct its own exam for the colleges under its control. 

This choice will put the NTA on test. The number of states opting for and the number of states opting out will be a measure of NTA's credibility and efficiency.”

Amid the chaos in the conduct of centralised exams by NTA, education seems to have taken a backseat. The question that needs to be asked is if centralisation of education (including of exams) is contrary to the spirit of our Constitution, which places education in the concurrent list.  Should the state governments be totally bypassed? The Tamil Nadu government has been shouting through the roof opposing this. It is time more state governments raise their voices, as the lakhs and lakhs of children and their families who are suffering belong to all states.