NEET aspirants, parents meet Rahul Gandhi, seek support for re-test

A group of NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) 2024 aspirants along with their parents on Thursday met senior Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi amid the ongoing row over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam 2024.

The students met Gandhi at his residence in Delhi to seek his support in demanding re-examination of the MBBS qualifying exam for medical students. Gandhi met about 15-20 NEET-UG aspirants, minutes after addressing a press conference on the issue.

"We had a satisfying meeting with Rahul ji. He understood the pain of our children," the parent of a student said after the interaction with the Congress MP.

"We are demanding re-examination of the NEET-UG paper. Rahul sir heard our request and assured us that he would make all possible efforts to get the re-examination conducted in our interest," a student who met Gandhi said. The aspirants were accompanied by Congress' student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI) president Varun Choudhary, who organised the meeting.

NEET-UG aspirants across the country have been demanding a re-examination after reports of irregularities and paper leaks cropped up at many test centres in Bihar and Gujarat.

The students have demanded that a fresh examination be conducted by an agency other than the National Testing Agency (NTA), raising questions over its ability to conduct such examinations after the cancellation on Wednesday of the UGC-NET (National Eligibility Test) for research scholars and lecturers too.

The Union education ministry cancelled the UGC-NET, also conducted by the NTA, following inputs that the integrity of the examination may have been compromised.

Launching a scathing attack on the Centre over the irregularities, Gandhi said at the press meet that the main reason for paper leaks is that educational institutions have been captured by the BJP and its parent organisation the RSS, and paper leaks will not stop unless that is reversed.

"It was being said Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped the Ukraine-Russia War and Israel-Gaza war, but he is either not able to stop exam paper leaks or doesn't want to," Gandhi said.

He added that Modi has "psychologically collapsed" post-elections and will struggle to run a government like this. He also said the Opposition will raise the exam paper leaks issue in Parliament, asserting that it will pressure the government to take action and bring the guilty to book.

Meanwhile, the education ministry on Thursday said it is awaiting a report of by the Bihar Police's economic offences unit regarding irregularities in the conduct of NEET in state capital Patna, and will take further action once the report is filed. The ministry also summoned NTA director-general Subodh Kumar Singh to discuss the issue further.