Oppn plans protest in and outside Parl against alleged irregularities in NEET

NEW DELHI: Amid raging controversy over the alleged irregularities in the NEET medical examination, the Opposition has worked out a two-pronged strategy to put the government on the mat over the issue. It has decided to hit the streets to demand justice for the students and action against those responsible, and will also raise the issue in the coming session of Parliament.

The Congress, which secured 99 Lok Sabha seats, making it the biggest constituent of the Opposition INDIA bloc, has decided to hold nationwide protests on Friday and will also march to Parliament on Monday, which will be the first day of the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha. It is also likely to push for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Monday will also witness a protest by the student wing of the DMK - a party that has been against the national medical entrance exam even before this year’s irregularities. The protest will reiterate the party’s demand of leaving medical admissions in Tamil Nadu out of the ambit of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The BJP’s former ally, AIADMK, is also against the national exam.

Friday’s protest will be held at all state headquarters of the Congress. In a letter to all state unit chiefs, state in-charges, Congress legislature party leaders, general secretaries and others on Wednesday, Congress General Secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal, said there is an urgent need to address the surfeit of complaints and concerns surrounding NEET-UG 2024.

“As you are aware, the National Testing Agency (NTA) released the results of NEET-UG 2024 on 4th June 2024. The results have been marred by allegations of irregularities and paper leaks following the inflated marks of some aspirants,” he said. Venugopal said there are significant concerns over the inflated marks and irregularities.

“The examination has been plagued by technical glitches, malpractice and unfair means in certain test centres. Organised corruption is evident from arrests made in Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana, revealing a pattern of malpractice in BJP-ruled states,” he said.

The Supreme Court has also highlighted the seriousness of these allegations, demanding zero tolerance for negligence, Venugopal noted.

“Such irregularities undermine the credibility of the examination process and jeopardise the future of countless dedicated students. The Congress party had promised to secure the future of the youth by enforcing strict laws against paper leaks in our manifesto,” he said.

It will be followed by the march to Parliament on Monday and the Congress is also likely to take up the issue strongly inside both houses during the session.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the issue.

“Narendra Modi, as usual, is maintaining silence on the tampering with the future of more than 24 lakh students in the NEET examination. The arrests made in Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana clearly show that there has been organised corruption in the examination in a planned manner and these BJP-ruled states have become the epicentre of paper leaks,” he wrote in Hindi, and promised that the Opposition will take up the issue on the students’ behalf.

The Supreme Court had also come down heavily on the National Testing Agency, which organises the exam, and said it expects timely action.

“If there’s even 0.001% negligence on anyone’s part, it should be thoroughly dealt with,” the bench said on Tuesday.

The examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets got completed earlier.

There have been allegations of question paper leaks in states like Bihar and other irregularities in the prestigious exam. The allegations have led to protests in several cities and filing of petitions in several high courts as also the Supreme Court. Scores of students protested in Delhi on June 10 seeking a probe into alleged irregularities.