'Cancel NEET too': Opposition corners Centre after NTA cancels UGC-NET exam saying ‘integrity may have been compromised’

Hours after the National Testing Agency cancelled the UGC-NET saying 'exam integrity compromised', the Opposition upped the ante on the NEET-UG 2024 row, asking the BJP-led NDA government to cancel it too. 

Addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said, "You often discuss exams, but when will you discuss NEET? The UGC-NET exam cancellation is a victory for the spirit of countless girl students and a defeat for the arrogance of the Modi government, which attempted to undermine our youth's future."

Kharge added, "The Union Education Minister previously claimed no paper was leaked in NEET. Yet, with arrests of education mafias in Bihar, Gujarat, and Haryana, he now acknowledges a scam. When will NEET be cancelled?"

The UGC-NET cancellation comes amid ongoing controversy over irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, where questions were raised about grace marks awarded to certain top-performing students.

Congress leader Karti Chidambaram tweeted, "Cancel #NEET too! The examination lacks integrity."

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "The BJP government's laxity and corruption are fatal for the youth. With the NEET scam news, now the NET exam held on June 18 is also cancelled over irregularities. Will accountability be established? Will the education minister take responsibility for this flawed system?"

The Aam Aadmi Party added, "Not a single exam is conducted without rigging and paper leaks under the incompetent BJP government. This government is harming the country's future, pushing millions of students into despair."

As per an official statement by the Ministry of Education, the NTA conducted the UGC-NET June 2024 Examination in OMR (pen and paper) mode on 18 June, 2024 in two shifts across different cities of the country. “On 19 June, 2024, the University Grants Commission (UGC) received certain inputs from National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs on the Examination. These inputs prima-facie indicate that the integrity of the aforesaid examination may have been compromised,” it said.

To ensure the highest level of transparency and sanctity of the examination process, the ministry said it has decided that the UGC-NET June 2024 Examination be cancelled.

Fresh examination will be conducted, about which information will be shared separately, it said. The matter is being handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for thorough probe, the ministry added.