Notwithstanding a clarification on Monday by the National Testing Agency (NTA) that reports of a question paper leak in the medical entrance exam, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG are “baseless and without any ground,” the Congress on Monday claimed that this trend has been going on for the last 10 years. and that is why unemployment and corruption in jobs were the biggest issues of this election.
“Be it the students who dream of getting admission in college after passing 12th or the promising youth who are struggling for government jobs, the Modi government has become a curse for everyone,” former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said in a post on social media platform X.
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He added that the news of NEET exam paper leak was a “betrayal of the dreams of more than 23 lakh students and their families”.
Mr. Gandhi promised that the Congress had resolved to free the youth from paper leaks by passing a strict law against such leaks. “The youth and their family, who have been paying the price of the BJP government’s incompetence for the last 10 years with the destruction of their future, have now understood that there is a difference between speaking and running the government,” he said.
“This trend, which has been going on with crores of promising youth for the last 10 years, is showing no sign of stopping. Will the Prime Minister of the country say anything on this?” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked in a post in Hindi on X,.
“That is why unemployment and corruption in jobs are the biggest issues of this election. Our Nyay Patra resolves that paper leaks will stop. Recruitment will come out as per the calendar. The vacant posts will be filled. This playing with the future of the youth will stop and we will do this,” she added.
Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X, said news of the NEET paper leak had come to light in Bihar. “Apart from this, there have also been complaints from Rajasthan about wrong sets of question papers of NEET exam being distributed at the examination centres,” he said.
“In the last seven years, more than 70 papers have been leaked. Due to this, the future of more than two crore candidates has been ruined. Despite there being laws regarding paper leaks in many States, papers are being leaked,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Giving examples, Mr Ramesh said 3.75 lakh candidates had participated in the teacher recruitment examination in Bihar on March 15 but the exam had to be cancelled within a few days because of paper leak. Similarly, 60 lakh candidates took part in the Uttar Pradesh Police examination on February 17 and 18 February but the Yogi Adityanath government had to cancel the examination due to paper leak.
“Merely punishing the culprits involved in the paper leak is not enough. Our aim is to prevent any paper from being leaked,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding that ‘Paper leak se mukti (freedom from paper leaks)is one of the five ‘Yuva Nyay’ guarantees.
