Education system handed over to ‘mafia’ by Modi govt: Priyanka Gandhi

PTI, Jun 23, 2024, 12:16 PM IST

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday attacked the Narendra Modi government over the alleged irregularities in national competitive exams, including the NEET-UG, alleging that it has handed over the entire education system to the “mafia” and the “corrupt”.

Her reaction came a day after the Union education ministry set up a panel to review the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) — the body responsible for conducting the tests — and recommend exam reforms.

The Centre on Saturday also shunted out the agency’s Director General Subodh Singh and handed over the probe into the irregularities in medical entrance exam NEET-UG to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In a post on X, Priyanka Gandhi said the NEET-UG question paper was “leaked” while the NEET-PG, UGC-NET and CSIR-NET exams were “cancelled”.

“This is the condition of some of the biggest examinations in the country today. Under the BJP’s rule, the entire education system has been handed over to the mafia and the corrupt,” the Congress leader said in her post in Hindi.

“The political stubbornness and arrogance of handing over the country’s education and the future of children to greedy and sycophantic incompetent people has made paper leaks, cancellation of exams, disappearance of education from campuses and political hooliganism the identity of our education system,” she said.

The situation has become such that the BJP government cannot even conduct one examination in a fair manner, Priyanka Gandhi alleged.

“Today, the BJP government has become the single biggest hurdle for the future of the youth. The capable youth of the country are wasting their precious time and energy in fighting the corruption of the BJP and the helpless Modi ji is just being a spectator,” she said.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-PG, conducted for admission to postgraduate medical courses, was scheduled to be held on June 23 but was postponed as a “precautionary measure” in the wake of recent allegations on the integrity of some competitive exams, including the NEET-Undergraduate (UG).

The NTA on Friday announced the postponement of the June edition of the Joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (CSIR-NET), citing unavoidable circumstances and logistic issues.

It came two days after the agency cancelled the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) within 24 hours of its conduct saying the integrity of the exam had been compromised, and a massive row on NEET over alleged irregularities, with the issue now before the Supreme Court.