New Delhi: The mega controversy over the medical entrance exam NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) has snowballed into a massive political row, with the newly rejuvenated Opposition targetting the government alleging inaction. Today, Congress's Rahul Gandhi joined in, questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence and contending that BJP-ruled states have become the "epicentre of paper leak".
In a Hindi post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Gandhi said, "Narendra Modi, as usual, is maintaining silence on the tampering with the future of more than 24 lakh students in the NEET examination".
His message ended with the promise of a cohesive Opposition taking up the issues that affect the people.
"While fulfilling the responsibility of the opposition, we are committed to formulating such tough policies by strongly raising the voice of the youth from the streets to parliament and putting pressure on the government," the message read.
Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK is already up in arms against NEET, contending that it is discriminatory in nature. Rural students who do not have the advantage of attending expensive coaching centres cannot do well, the DMK has argued. The party has demanded that the government medical colleges in the state be left out of NEET.
Today, Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party joined the students during their protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar in a show of solidarity. The party has said it would flag the issue in parliament.
With the Opposition mounting an all-out attack on the government over this, it was the turn of Jitan Ram Manjhi, the minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, to take up cudgels on behalf of the government.
"This is not about BJP versus Congress and Opposition alliance. It is true that NEET paper has been leaked. Similar things happened in Bihar also. But complaints have been registered and investigations are on... The government is determined to eradicate such things," he said.
The row over NEET has been on since June 4 -- the day results of the Lok Sabha election was declared -- as allegations surfaced of multiple cases of unprecedented perfect scores and other irregularities, including extra grace marks. The students have been demanding the exam be rescheduled for everyone and not just the 1500-odd students who received grace marks.
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, came down heavily today on the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the nationwide exam. "If there's even 0.001% negligence on anyone's part, it should be thoroughly dealt with," the court said.
"As an agency which is conducting the examination, you must act fair. If there is a mistake, say yes, this is a mistake, and this is the action we are going to take. At least that inspires confidence in your performance," a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti told the NTA.