'Dharmendra Pradhan doesn't understand what's going on': Rahul Gandhi demands accountability for NEET-UG paper leak, criticises Education Minister

The inaugural Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha began with a fiery session on Monday with Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi raising serious concerns over the recent NEET-UG paper leak, urging the government and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to take full responsibility for the issue.

Gandhi, addressing the Parliament, emphasized the gravity of the situation, stating, "It is obvious to the whole country that there is a very serious problem in our examination system, not just in NEET but in all the major examinations. The minister (Dharmendra Pradhan) has blamed everybody except himself. I don't even think he understands the fundamentals of what is going on here."

He further questioned the government's approach to resolving the problem, asking, "As this (NEET) is a systematic issue, what exactly are you doing to fix this issue?"

Highlighting the public's distrust in the examination system, Gandhi remarked, "Millions of people believe that if you are rich and you have money, you can buy the Indian examination system and this is the same feeling that the opposition has," and demanded a dedicated one-day discussion on the matter.

In response, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan denied any paper leaks in the last seven years and mentioned that the NEET matter is currently under the Supreme Court's scrutiny. "No evidence of paper leak has been found in the last 7 years. This (NEET) matter is going on before the Supreme Court. I can say with full responsibility that more than 240 exams have been conducted successfully after NTA," Pradhan countered.

Adding to the debate, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav accused the government of perpetuating paper leaks. "This government will make 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," Yadav said.

Pradhan retorted by highlighting the transparency in the results publication, which was done following the Supreme Court's directions. "I don't want to do politics, but I have a list of how many paper leaks happened when Akhilesh Yadav was in charge," Pradhan said.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud along with justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, is currently hearing several petitions regarding the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam. The National Testing Agency (NTA) admitted to the paper leak and the spread of the ‘leaked question paper’ via WhatsApp.

At the outset, the bench inquired about the results declared by NTA for each centre and city. An analysis of the results released by NTA indicated that candidates allegedly benefiting from the leak did not perform well overall, although some centres showed a high concentration of top-performing students.

The voluminous data from over 23 lakh candidates across 4,750 centres was released following the Supreme Court's directive. The data was not cumulative but provided in a drop-down format for each centre. The ongoing hearing continues as lakhs of aspirants await the final verdict on the exam's integrity.