– Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi, June 15: The alleged National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) scam has escalated into a significant political controversy. The main opposition party, Congress, has accused the Modi government of attempting to cover up the scandal surrounding the NEET, asserting that it cannot evade responsibility. Highlighting connections to Gujarat and Bihar, Congress reiterated its demand for a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the NEET results conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Pawan Khera, Chairman of the Media and Publicity Department of AICC, stated that the futures of 24 lakh students were jeopardized due to paper leaks, corruption, and massive irregularities.
“NEET Scam is Vyapam 2.0 and the Modi Government wants to whitewash it,” Khera remarked, adding, “it cannot run away from accountability.” He demanded that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan initiate a Supreme Court-monitored independent forensic probe into the NEET scam. Khera criticized Pradhan’s dismissal of widespread protests, multiple court cases, and student outrage as “motivated,” calling it an insult to the 24 lakh aspirants affected by the scandal.
Khera posed several questions to the BJP government, seeking answers:
- He asked if the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Patna Police, which is investigating the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak, found that medical aspirants paid sums ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh to brokers for access to question papers ahead of the May 5 exam. He noted reports of a Rs 60 crore transaction in various newspapers.
- He questioned whether the Education Minister could deny that 13 individuals had been arrested in Bihar and sent to judicial custody in connection with NEET paper leaks via Telegram channels a day before the exam.
- He inquired about a NEET-UG cheating racket in Godhra, Gujarat, involving three individuals, including a coaching center operator and a teacher, with transactions worth over Rs. 12 crore.
Khera highlighted the surprising 2024 results, where 67 toppers achieved perfect scores of 720/720, compared to just two in 2023, none in 2022, and three in 2021. He pointed out that six students from the same center in Bahadurgarh attained the maximum marks. He noted that the NTA admitted to awarding illegal grace marks to 44 out of the 67 top scorers and questioned why the NTA engaged in this ad hoc process.
Khera also raised concerns about multiple NEET-UG 2024 toppers belonging to the same state and having similar roll numbers, questioning if they were from the same examination centers.
He questioned the motive behind advancing the NEET results by 10 days, speculating that the results were declared to coincide with the Lok Sabha Election results and attract less media attention.
Khera pointed out that with only about 55,000 seats available in government medical colleges, 80,468 students scoring more than 600 marks would struggle to gain admission, particularly SC, ST, OBC, and EWS students.
The Congress spokesperson demanded the NTA release the complete results of students scoring 580 plus marks for the last year and this year to verify the transparency of the examination process. He suggested making the centers of students scoring 580 plus public to assess if many traveled far from their homes for the NEET exam.
Khera also called for correlating board marks with NEET marks to determine the validity of the paper leak allegations. He asserted that only a Supreme Court-monitored forensic probe could safeguard the futures of lakhs of young students and hold the Modi government accountable to the nation.
