PM’s priority misplaced; NEET must be reassessed to stop paper leaks: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (June 20) said his party will raise the NEET exam paper leak issue in Parliament and demand the Centre to reassess the examination system to prevent such scams in future.

‘Exam needs to be reassessed’

Coming down heavily on the Narendra Modi government, Rahul said the BJP was solely responsible for such scams as it has appointed corrupt and “ideologically-compromised” people in the country’s top institutions who have been turning a blind eye to irregularities.

“We had said in our manifesto that while strong action is required after a paper leak, a reassessment of the exam system to prevent such leaks is more important. We will try to pressure the government into doing this,” Rahul said while addressing reporters on the NEET row.

Flagging discrepancies in results of NEET-UG exam this year, several aspirants have been alleging a possible paper leak and irregularities in the examination process. While the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre have been denying these allegations, the fear of candidates came true after an aspirant confessed to have seen the exam paper a day before the test with the help of a gang that claims of having expertise in leaking papers of major competitive exams. Four people have been arrested in the case so far.

‘Paper leaks endemic to India’

Speaking to the media, Rahul said during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra earlier this year, he received thousands of complaints about paper leaks in competitive examinations.

“During the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, thousands of youth complained to us about non-stop paper leaks, that paper leaks have become endemic to India today. The NEET paper and the UGC-NET paper have also been leaked. NET has been cancelled too,” he said.

“There is a huge pressure on our students and it comes from number of directions. First is large scale unemployment and one of the reasons the BJP suffered in the elections was because youngsters believe Modi is unable to deliver on this. Second is of existing employment avenues shutting down. It isn't just an education crisis; the crisis is in every sphere. People realise we are sitting on a disaster, a profound national, institutional, education crisis,” he said.

Why isn’t Modi ji stopping paper leaks?: Rahul

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul wondered why he hasn’t been able to stop paper leaks when legends about him say he has stopped wars with a single phone call.

“Modi ji, some said, stopped wars with just one phone call but the same Modi ji can't stop paper leaks in India – or he doesn't want to stop them,” the Congress leader said. ‘Institutional capture’

The Congress leader said such scams will keep happening till the BJP government continues to “capture” institutions.

“The Vyapam scam happened in (BJP ruled) Madhya Pradesh and now Narendra Modi and his party are spreading it across the country. I speak of institutional capture. This is an example of the result of that institutional capture. All these institutions are captured by Narendra Modi's people – the Vice Chancellors are not appointed on merit but because of their ideology. The objective education system has been demolished and captured by the RSS and BJP. Unless this capture is demolished, this will happen again and again and again,” he said. He alleged that the BJP’s inability to put a check on irregularities in entrance examinations in states ruled by it has led to the proliferation of such scams across the country.

‘Hire honest people to run institutions’

“If you are looking for culprits, look for the mediocre people running the institutions. This all started with BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh, the laboratory and epicentre were Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and this is now being expanded on a national scale by the BJP. Till the BJP is in power, this will continue,” he said. Rahul said the root of the problem is the installation of dishonest and corrupt people to run these institutions.

“There is no dearth of honest people in the country. If you bring in honest people to run these institutions, paper leaks will stop. But the BJP has stacked all these places with people who are ideologically compromised, mediocre, have no skill for the job and have been put in for the wrong reasons,” he said. “The students spend months preparing, spend money... we in the Opposition will not allow the investigation to be an eyewash. The government will face huge pressure from the Opposition If it tries to push through an eyewash.”

PM psychologically broken: Rahul

Lashing out at the prime minister, Rahul said his priority at present seems to be bagging the Speaker’s post for his party, and not sorting out the NEET issue.

“The prime minister’s priority right now with ensuring his party gets the Speaker. His priority is not NEET. The prime minister is psychologically broken. He will struggle to run a government like this (without his own majority) because his idea of running a government is to make people scared. Now that won't happen because the basic concept of Modi has been destroyed in this election,” he said.

“If you had a Vajpayee or Manmohan Singh ji today, they would have survived this because there was humility and conciliation but Modi doesn't have that. Earlier he had the Congress party which wasn't scared of him, today no one is scared of him. The other day someone threw ‘chappal’ (slipper) at his car in Varanasi. And now we have a much stronger Opposition in Parliament, we will not let the government get away with this,” he added.