Slamming the Centre over the alleged irregularities in medical entrance exam NEET, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said he will personally raise the issue in Parliament and the Opposition will put pressure on the government to ensure justice for students.
Gandhi shared a video of his meeting with a group of NEET aspirants and their parents on Thursday amid the ongoing row over the alleged irregularities in NEET-UG 2024.
In his post along with the video, Gandhi said the future of lakhs of students is in limbo due to the "incompetence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers "Met and interacted with students who were harassed by paper leak and cheating in NEET exam. This is the biggest injustice to the aspirations of 24 lakh youth, their parents, who have been working hard for their goal for years," he said in his post on X in Hindi.
This kind of crime has caused loss of precious time of children, loss of lakhs of rupees spent in preparation for the exam and most importantly, it has affected the mental health of the ambitious youth of the country, Gandhi, a former Congress president, said.
"I assure the youth of the country that I stand with them against injustice. The Congress party will protest against paper leak and cheating in the exam across the country in the coming days and will ensure justice for them," the Rae Barelli MP said.
In the video, Gandhi said, "I want to speak with 24 lakh students who have suffered due to the NEET paper leak. From the streets to Parliament, we are standing with you. I want to say to 24 lakh students that you are not alone. In the last seven years, there have been 70 paper leaks and two crore youth have lost out due to it." "We will fight this fight together and win it," he added.
In the video of the interaction, the students shared their sufferings with Gandhi who assured them of support.
To a student who pointed out that UGC-NET had been cancelled by the education ministry and the Supreme Court had also taken cognisance of the NEET issue, Gandhi said it was made possible due to political pressure.
"Both institutions will decide on it when you put pressure. If you apply pressure in the right manner, don't back down and if a lot of students stand together then both institutions will cancel it," he said.
Towards the end of the video, Gandhi said if the government doesn't protect you, the opposition will.
"I will raise this issue of yours personally in Parliament and we will put full pressure on the government," Gandhi said.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to defer the NEET-UG counselling process, scheduled to kick off on July 6, saying it is not an "open and shut" exercise, even as the political pot kept boiling over the controversy-ridden exam with the opposition attacking the Centre over alleged paper leak and other irregularities.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), under fire over the lapses in the conduct of NEET and UGC-NET, is gearing up to conduct on Sunday a retest for the medical entrance exam for 1,563 candidates who were earlier awarded grace marks to make up for the loss of time at six centres.
The Congress, meanwhile, staged protests across the country over the alleged irregularities and demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
