Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday accused the opposition of trying to create "anarchy" and "civil unrest" using the NEET-UG issue and said with the Supreme Court verdict related to the controversy-ridden exam, "truth has prevailed".
The opposition should apologise to students and their parents for "misleading" them, Mr Pradhan said as he announced that the final results for the medical entrance 2024 NEET-UG exam will be declared within two days according to the observations made by the Supreme Court.
The court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas seeking cancellation and re-test of the 2024 NEET-UG, holding that there was no evidence on record to conclude that it was "vitiated" on account of "systemic breach" of its sanctity.
The interim verdict, to be followed by a detailed and reasoned order, came as a shot in the arm for the embattled BJP-led NDA government and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which were facing strong criticism and protests, on streets and in Parliament, over alleged large-scale malpractices like question paper leak, fraud and impersonation in the prestigious test held on May 5.
The revised final results of the exam will be announced taking into account marks of a physics question, which the NTA said had two correct answers. The revised result likely to reduce the number of toppers as 44 out of 61 toppers had shared the top rank because of this.
"The apex court dismissed the pleas seeking cancellation and re-test of the 2024 NEET-UG, holding that there was no evidence on record to conclude that the sanctity of the exam has been violated. Today's verdict on NEET-UG will put speculation to rest and provide relief to lakhs of hardworking and honest students," Pradhan told a press conference here.
"The judgement will open the eyes of those who rubbished the Indian examination system and grabbed this opportunity for vested interests, scoring political brownies and stoking 'civil unrest and anarchy'. They should apologise for playing with the sentiments of lakhs of students and their parents as well as for trying to gain political mileage out of it," he said.
Hailing the Supreme Court decision, the education minister said "Satyamav Jayate, truth has prevailed".
"We have been saying this from the beginning that our priority is the students of this country. The government's priority has always been to see that there should be no tampering with the future of students. For the last 2-2.5 months, the government's stand has been that there has not been any large-scale breach. Today, the Supreme Court has upheld that in its final judgment," he said.
The education minister also slammed Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for calling the country's examination system "rubbish", and said he and the opposition should apologise to students and their parents.
"When the NEET matter came to light, the opposition's role became clear after the Supreme Court's judgement today. The attitude that the Lok Sabha LoP had adopted until yesterday, invalidating the examination system of the country and calling it 'rubbish' proves his mental status...Criticising this, Rahul Gandhi ji has criticised India," he said.
"Misleading the students of the country, creating confusion and provoking them for social tensions were all planned as part of his politics. By rejecting the electoral results in the country, anarchy and civil unrest have become a part of his strategy," the minister said.
Pradhan said he appeals to Gandhi and all the people of the opposition "who were involved in such irresponsible actions that they should apologise to students, the youth and parents of the country".
"You have hurt the country, attempted to create anarchy in the country, conspired to have civil unrest in the country. The country will not forgive you. Political rivalry can be different but students belong to everyone," he said.
The minister said the government's major concern was students from weaker sections of society and scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and rural students. The apex court also took that into account while pronouncing its decision, he said.
"For us, zero tolerance to any kind of breach is priority when it comes to exams for students. Be it for higher education or jobs. Therefore, the Modi government has brought into effect a strict law like the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act," he said.
Pradhan said the government has promised the Supreme Court that it will be committed to have a transparent, tamper-free and zero-error examination system.
"Taking this commitment forward, we announced a high-level committee for a complete revamp of the NTA. That committee is working dedicatedly. The committee has collected expert opinions and studied various models...They will submit a report soon," he said.
On the issue of a controversial physics question that was asked in the examination, the Supreme Court bench accepted the report of the experts of IIT-Delhi that there was only one right answer and not two as alleged by some lawyers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
