NET fuel to NEET fire as exam row explodes; probe begins

New Delhi (TIP)- A simmering controversy over irregularities and alleged paper leaks marring two premier entrance examinations exploded on Thursday, June 20, as thousands of students hit the streets in protest and Opposition leaders took shots at the ruling party even as the government reiterated its commitment to weed out any corruption and fix lacunae.
The row snowballed a day after the Union education ministry cancelled the UGC-NET examination and said the integrity of the process may have been compromised, jeopardising the futures of 900,000 students who appeared for the test. The announcement added fire to a swirling controversy around skewed results and allegations of paper leaks and irregularities that have vitiated the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) this year, left 2.4 million aspirants in limbo, and sparked questions about the processes followed by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
“I come from a poor background and my parents have toiled for me to reach this level. This was probably my last chance at NET,” said Amit Khan, an aspirant from Jammu’s Doda district.
On June 20, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that a specific question paper of the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) was leaked on the darknet and this led to the cancellation of the exam used to screen doctoral candidates, assistant professors and Junior Research Fellowships (JRF).
“Some irregularities have come to the notice of the government. We take responsibility for it,” he said.
But the Opposition was unimpressed. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi earlier said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was incapable or unwilling to stop the paper leaks and alleged that the education system was captured by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its parent organisation.
Gandhi, who may become the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, announced that the government is going to get pressure from the Opposition, setting the stage for confrontation over the exam controversy in the upcoming session of Parliament.
“It was being said that Modi applied the brakes on the Ukraine war. He also stopped Israel’s war in Gaza. But for some reason, Modi is unable and not willing to stop the paper leak. Students work for months and years to prepare for these exams but the government is playing with their future,” Gandhi said, comparing the NEET and NET issues with the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh. “The reason for the paper leak is that the education system has been captured by BJP and its parent organisation. This capture has been done by Modi,” he added.
Gandhi demanded that the guilty be brought to book, announced the exam issue will be raised in the upcoming Parliament session and insisted that the rules and system of universities had to be “reviewed and changed.”
The controversy began with this year’s NEET, the medical entrance examination, after allegations surfaced that in one centre in Rajasthan, students appearing for the Hindi medium test got question papers in English amid reports of torn OMR sheets and delay in distribution of question papers. A case was lodged in Patna over an alleged paper leak, after which the police arrested 13 people involved in solving question papers and supplying answers as part of a racket. The arrested people include four examinees.
For weeks, protests have swept across India as thousands of students hit the streets amid allegations of question paper leaks, inflated marking and arbitrary allowance of grace marks, even as opposition parties called for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the allegations. The Supreme Court is set to hear a raft of petitions on the issue on July 8.
Then, on Wednesday evening, the education ministry cancelled the UGC-NET examination and said the integrity of the process may have been compromised. The June edition of the exam was held on June 18 with 908, 580 candidates appearing at 1, 200 centres, taking the test 83 subjects using pen and paper on OMR sheets.
But 24 hours later, the ministry said that UGC, India’s higher education regulator, received certain inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the home ministry on the examination.
On Thursday, June 20, Pradhan shed further light on the decision.
Source: HT