Leader of Opposition and Lok Sabha MP from Raebareli Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday, July 2, wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating to conduct a debate in the Parliament on the issues pertaining to the national eligibility cum entrance test (NEET). In the letter, he said that the welfare of nearly 24 lakh NEET aspirants across India was their paramount concern and that the examination deserved immediate attention of the government as it “exposed the deep rot in our higher education system”.
“The past seven years have seen over 70 paper leaks, affecting over 2 crore students. The government's move to postpone other examinations and replace the Director General of the National Testing Agency is a move to cover up the systemic breakdown of our centralised testing system,” he said in the letter.
Stating that the students deserved answers, Rahul insisted that a parliamentary debate was the “first step towards rebuilding and restoring their faith” and requested the government to facilitate a debate in the House on July 3. “I believe that it would be fitting if you were to lead this debate in the interest of the students.” he added.
The NTA, which is the nodal agency that conducts the examination, has been criticised heavily for alleged malpractices in the NEET-UG exam because the results were announced on the same day of the Lok Sabha election results - June 4. The other controversies include 67 students getting the perfect score of 720/720 and some candidates getting 718 or 719. While the NTA attributed this to awarding grace marks to students who lost time during the exam among other things. Further, the NTA is also facing allegations of a question paper leak in Bihar and 13 persons are arrested in this regard.
