NEET issue to be raised in Parliament, say opposition MPs; Dharmendra Pradhan takes oath amid slogans

NEW DELHI: Amid a row over alleged irregularities in competitive exams, opposition MPs said on the first day of the 18th Lok Sabha that the government will have to answer on the controversy in Parliament. Several newly-elected members who took oath in the Lok Sabha on Monday said the government is not considering the hardship of students who are feeling stuck in limbo.

The credibility of the examination system has also come under question, they said. As Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan proceeded to take his oath, members of the opposition raised "NEET, NEET" slogans, as the controversy over alleged irregularities in competitive exams, including the medical entrance exam National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) and the the University Grants Commission–National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) continues to rage.

DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi said Tamil Nadu had been raising questions on the credibility of NEET for a long time and now the entire country is echoing those thoughts. "The credibility of exams conducted by the government is under question. Tamil Nadu always said 'we don't want NEET' and wanted to be exempt from it. Today, it is clear that this exam is not really fair … Now, the whole country is saying what we have been saying for a long time," she told reporters outside Parliament.

Pappu Yadav, the Independent MP from Bihar's Purnea, questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) taking over the probe into irregularities in NEET-UG. "The case has been handed over to the CBI because the Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit wanted to interrogate National Testing Agency (NTA) officials … That is why they quickly ordered a CBI probe. We will raise the issue in Parliament and demand a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into it," Yadav said.

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Opposition on NEET issue

Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury said the issue will reverberate in Parliament. "It is our responsibility to raise the NEET issue. Lakhs of children's hard work and their parents' money were wasted. The government is not taking their hardships into account. They neither can move forward nor step back. We were elected to raise the issues of the people … We will raise it in Parliament," she told reporters.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh claimed the BJP is now being called an IPL (Indian Paper Leak) team. "There are two to three important issues to consider. First is the NEET paper leak. The UGC exam was cancelled, and NEET-PG postponed. Whichever exams the NTA conducted, (papers) got leaked. People are calling the BJP an IPL team," he said.

Samajwadi Party MP Iqra Hasan demanded that the government find a permanent solution to the "examination mess". "It's a very important issue ... The country's youngsters are being cheated. If an exam is scheduled, either it is postponed or the paper is leaked. The government should find a permanent solution to this examination mess," she said.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that paper leaks were taking place in BJP-ruled states and claimed it was a "deliberate" attempt to dissuade youngsters from seeking employment. "NEET is nothing new, this is an old model of the BJP. They get papers leaked. It was a major issue in Uttar Pradesh," Yadav alleged. "You are talking about Digital India on one hand, on the other hand paper leaks are taking place. This is being done deliberately so that youngsters do not get reservation and jobs," he said.

Also read NEET was far from fair even before this year's grace marks, paper-leak controversies

Tearing into Pradhan's remark that the NEET-UG paper leak was an "isolated incident" and hence the exam would not be cancelled, Yadav said, "It is not a localised issue. Look at history, question papers have been leaked several times under BJP governments." Harendra Malik, another Samajwadi Party MP, said, "Repeated paper leaks is unfortunate. The youngsters are the future of any country and you (government) are playing with their futures."

NET, NEET UG controversy

The Centre has drawn flak over alleged irregularities in NEET-UG and UGC-NET. While the medical entrance exam question paper was allegedly leaked, according to an investigation by the Bihar Police, UGC-NET was cancelled a day after it was conducted following input that the exam's integrity had been compromised. Both the matters are now being investigated by the CBI. Two other exams -- NEET-PG and CSIR-UGC NET -- have been cancelled by the government amid the row.

Meanwhile, the Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) had planned a march to the Parliament on the first day of the 18th Lok Sabha. The students, holding placards and NSUI flags, gathered in large numbers at Jantar Mantar for their 'Chhatra Sansad Gherav'. Ahead of the protest, police barricaded the area to prevent the students from taking out their march. More than two dozen students, some of them NSUI members, were detained.