AAP leaders protest at Jantar Mantar against NEET exam irregularities
Saurabh Bharadwaj, Sanjay Singh, Rakhi Birla present in gathering, burn placards saying “NEET ghotala”
3 min read
Aam Aadmi Party leaders hold protest against NEET Exam Scam at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders gathered at Jantar Mantar Tuesday to protest against the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) where they burned placards, which read “NEET ghotala”. Delhi health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj called for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the matter.
Some of the AAP leaders who joined the protest site were Delhi Assembly Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla, AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai, AAP MLA Jarnail Singh, and AAP MP Sanjay Singh.
“There are 24 lakh students who appeared in the NEET exam. They prepared for 16 to 18 hours… . Never before have people heard that someone paid a bribe to ace the exam,” Bharadwaj said.
Alleging that some aspirants in Bihar received the question paper and answers a day before the exam was conducted, Bharadwaj said, “We want a committee to be set up to probe the matter and it should be monitored by the apex court.”
Birla said that the Arvind Kejriwal government is pushing forward Delhi’s education model, which is based on Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s idea, and the central government should learn from it.
Considering the future of students who spent years preparing for these examinations, Birla urged Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to “take strict action against such irregularities and make stronger laws so that such mistakes will not be repeated.”
This might be a long fight until the students get justice, the deputy speaker said, but “all our party workers are fighting for this in Delhi, and tomorrow we will fight across the nation.”
AAP MP Singh also criticised the Modi government for the NEET controversy and alleged that the “massive scam” has ruined the futures of crores of students.
Singh further said, “In UP, 60 lakh candidates were affected due to corruption in police recruitment, and in the NEET scam, the futures of 24 lakh children were jeopardised.” The NEET exam should be cancelled and those responsible for the scam should face strict punishment, said the AAP MP.
On June 4, the National Testing Agency (NTA) published NEET undergraduate results, the competitive examination for admission to medical, dental, and AYUSH courses in government and private colleges. Many candidates got a perfect score of 720/720, and a few others scored 718 or 719 — marks that others claimed were impossible to get in the examination scheme. Questions have also been raised over the NTA awarding grace marks and allegations of paper leaks.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) will now re-conduct the exam for 1,563 candidates on June 23. The candidates who were awarded ‘grace marks’ due to the loss of exam time have two options before them: either to accept the NEET-UG score they were originally awarded with (without grace marks) or to re-appear for the exam on June 23.
At least two petitions were filed in two High Courts against the results. On June 1, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking the examination be held again due to a “leaked” question paper.
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