‘Ruined education system’: Opposition attacks Modi Govt over recent exam cancellations, postponement

NEW DELHI: The opposition hit out at the Narendra Modi government following the recent exam cancellations and paper leak reports. The ministry of health on Saturday postponed the National Eligibility Entrance Test - Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2024 in the ‘best interest of students’. The leaders in opposition called the Modi government ‘incompetent’ and ‘corrupt’.

NEET PG is the third national level exam in the series of exams being affected by alleged paper leak and malpractices. Earlier, the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC NET) June 2024 was cancelled as the education ministry felt that the exam might be compromised. NEET UG 2024 controversy is still ongoing with new developments emerging everyday. The centre announced that a high-level committee has been formed to conduct transparent exams while the director general of the National Testing Agency (NTA), Subodh Kumar Singh , has been removed from his post.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the BJP government and said that under its rule the education system has been handed to the mafia and corrupt persons. The leader asserted that the ruling government cannot conduct even a single exam fairly.

“Under the BJP rule, the entire education system has been handed over to the mafia and the corrupt. The political stubbornness and arrogance of handing over the country's education and the future of the children to greedy and sycophantic incompetent people has made paper leaks, cancellation of exams, disappearance of education from campuses and political hooliganism the identity of our education system,” Vadra said in a post on X.

“Today, the BJP government has become the single biggest hurdle in front of the future of the youth. The capable youth of the country are wasting their precious time and energy in fighting the corruption of the BJP and the helpless Modi ji is just watching the spectacle,” she added.

NEET, NET: Paper leak, corruption

Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra called the exam cancellation ‘biggest failure’ of the Modi government. “Due to paper leak, first UGC-NET was cancelled and now tomorrow's NEET-PG exam has been postponed. To suppress corruption, Modi government is playing with the future of lakhs of youth. NEET paper leak and cancellation of these exams is the biggest failure of the weak Modi government,” the minister said in a Hindi post.

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, who has been raising his voice against NEET, once again asked to join hands for restoring the rights of states to determine the admission process for medical and other professional courses, for making the selection process fair and equitable, for making the primary education base for careers, and “most importantly, for reinstalling hope and faith in the minds of our students and their families.”

“The cancellation of NEET-PG by NBE, following the cancellation of UGC-NET, has thrown thousands of our doctors into deep despair. Let us not forget the fact that these happenings are not one-off events but the final nails in the coffin of an incompetent and broken system of centralised selection,” the TN CM remarked.

Targeting the Modi government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that this is another ‘unfortunate’ example of the ruined education system under the Modi rule. The leader said that students are being forced to fight instead of study under his government.

“Now it is clear - Modi, who used to silently watch the spectacle every time, is completely helpless in front of the paper leak racket and education mafia. Narendra Modi's incompetent government is the biggest threat to the future of students - we must save the future of the country from it,” Gandhi said in a post in Hindi.

Joining the attack on BJP rule, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) handle wrote, “The BJP government has created a world record in paper leak. The people in the Guinness Book of World Records want to enter the names of BJP members. The paper leak of NEET and UGC-NET has added to this record. The future of the youth of the country is being ruined under the Narendra Modi government.”