New Delhi:

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.)

Chandigarh:

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday slammed the Congress, saying it wants to run away from a discussion in Parliament over the NEET exam issue.

His remark came a day after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold a “respectful” and good discussion in Parliament on the issue of alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET exam.

Replying to a question on the opposition targeting the BJP-led Centre over the NEET exam issue, Mr Pradhan said, “The Congress does not want a discussion. It wants to run away from the discussion. Its only intention is to create chaos, confusion and create obstacles in the smooth functioning of the entire institutional mechanism.” He said the President had also talked about the NEET exam issue, being raised by the Congress, in her address in Parliament.

He further said the opposition had a chance to raise this issue during the motion of thanks to the President’s address and asserted the government was ready for any type of discussion.

“But the Congress wants to play politics over the matter. It is not the time to play politics,” Mr Pradhan told reporters after the first session of the Haryana BJP’s extended state executive meeting got over in Panchkula.

Without naming anyone, he further said such irregularities took place before 2014, apparently pointing towards the previous UPA regime at the Centre.

“I could not justify it,” he said.

On steps being taken for zero-error examinations, the minister said a high-level committee of experts under the chairmanship of former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan has been formed for the reform of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

“A strong law has been formed against public examination and disruption,” he added.

Mr Pradhan further said the matter pertaining to alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG has been handed over to the CBI.

“We are meeting students and parents,” he said.

To another question, he said the date of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Post Graduate will be announced by the NBE (National Board of Examinations) in one or two days.

The opposition caused repeated disruptions in Parliament Friday over the NEET paper leak issue.

NEET-UG was conducted by the NTA on May 5 with around 24 lakh candidates appearing. The results were announced on June 4, but they were followed by allegations of question paper leaks in states such as Bihar, besides other irregularities.

The Education Ministry also cancelled the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) and NEET (postgraduate) examinations after receiving inputs that the exams’ “integrity may have been compromised. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Under fire for the irregularities in NEET and the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that a high-level committee will be formed and that the interest of the students is the first priority of the government. 

Over 30 lakh candidates appeared for the exams, both of which were conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), and the minister’s comments came on a day when students held protests in various parts of the country, including outside Mr Pradhan’s home in Delhi. Some were also detained.