Budget session: Opposition questions govt in Lok Sabha over NEET paper leak case
Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Manickam Tagore had given an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha, demanding a discussion on the ongoing NEET row
The first day of the budget session in Lok Sabha began with the opposition seeking accountability from the government on the ongoing controversy over the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination with the latter reiterating the fact that no widespread malpractices have been found so far.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore gave an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha, demanding a discussion on the ongoing 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).”
Speaking during the question hour, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi pointed out the problems in the country’s examination system.
“This is not just the question of NEET but major examinations. Now, the minister has blamed everybody except himself. I don’t think he understands the fundamentals of what’s going on here,” he said.
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Gandhi said that there are millions of students in this country who are concerned about what is going on and who are convinced that the Indian examination system is a fraud.
“Millions of people believe that if you’re rich, if you have money, you can buy the Indian examination system, and this is the same feeling we as the Opposition have. 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 response to Gandhi, union education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan condemned the statements of the leader of opposition.
“A lie will not become the truth just by shouting…. I condemn that he called that country’s examination system “rubbish”, he said.
Responding to a question over allegations of seventy paper leak-related incidents in the past seven years, Pradhan said, “There is no evidence of paper leak in the last seven years. This case (NEET matter) is going on in the Supreme Court right now. All the things have come out and all the questions have been answered.”
“NTA has conducted more than 240 examinations, over five crore students have applied for these, and more than four and a half crore students successfully participated in the exams,” he said.
After Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Akhilesh Yadav also attacked the government and said that it has made a record of paper leaks.
“There are some centres where more than 2,000 students have passed. As long as this minister (Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan) is there, the students will not get justice,” he said.
Yadav also asked the government to generate a list of students from respective exam centres who got high marks.
In response, Pradhan said that the centre wise results of all NEET-UG candidates have been available in public domain for the last three days.
The NTA had on Saturday made the result public following the directions of the Supreme Court.
Pradhan continued his rebuttal to Yadav where he questioned the latter on the paper leak incidents in Uttar Pradesh while his government was in power.
“It is also not hidden how many question papers were leaked in Uttar Pradesh when Akhilesh Ji’s government was there”, he said.
NK Premachandran, member of Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), said that the credibility of competitive exams has been lost in the country, and demanded that a joint parliamentary committee be constituted to investigate the NEET-UG issue.
Countering him, Pradhan said, “The government has nothing to hide, and we have put all facts in front of the Supreme Court.”