‘We are all victims of the system’: AISA chief Neha Bora on political accountability, scrapping NTA

The Jharkhand agitation over alleged irregularities in examinations conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) has intensified in recent weeks, with protesters demanding greater accountability and a probe into the examination process.

Bora, who said she had herself participated in the Jantar Mantar protest in Delhi seeking resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmedra Pradhan over NEET paper leak, and had spent two days at the protest site in Ranchi, said AISA viewed the different agitations as manifestations of a common problem.

She also defended the demand for political accountability following Pradhan’s resignation and said that it demonstrated that elected representatives could be held accountable through sustained public mobilisation.

“When people’s representatives begin to feel that they aren’t even answerable to the people and reject demands of resignations, it becomes important for these representatives to become aware about democracy,” she said.

“We believe that the movement, in whatever state, against whichever government it goes on, is a result of the fact that we are all victims of the system,” she said, arguing that the examination system had been consolidated through policies such as the NEP and needed to be challenged collectively.

The “Gen-Z Rising” campaign was launched by the AISA earlier this month as a nationwide outreach programme, with Bora travelling across several states to meet student and youth groups. The first phase includes stops in Ranchi, Kolkata, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and other cities.

The immediate focus of the campaign, Bora said, was the demand to scrap the NTA and roll back NEP 2020.

“We stand against the centralisation of exams which state that one institution will decide the future of crores of aspirants,” she said.

Bora argued that centralised examinations could disadvantage students dependent on public education systems and said AISA was opposed to the outsourcing of examination-related functions to private agencies.

She referred to Tamil Nadu’s position on the need for a decentralised examination system and said AISA supported greater state-level involvement in conducting examinations.

Tamil Nadu has historically opposed the centralised NEET model, while recent policy debates have also raised questions about the NTA’s functioning and the disadvantages faced by students from different educational backgrounds.

Bora also criticised the Centre’s recent attempt to strengthen penalties for examination malpractice, arguing that stricter ‘quantitative’ punishment alone could not address what she described as a systemic problem.

Referring to the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, she said increasing penalties would not address the structural problems created by the centralisation of examinations.

“It’s like trying to cure a heart attack with a band-aid,” she said.

The proposed legislation seeks to increase penalties for examination-related offences and introduce time-bound investigation and trial mechanisms. Bora, however, argued that examination reforms required a structural rather than a merely punitive response.

Bora also condemned the violence against journalists when asked about the July 24 students’ protest in Kolkata, but also criticised sections of the mainstream media for what she described as sensationalisation, communal polarisation and media trials.

“Any act of violence against journalists is condemnable,” she said, while arguing that sections of the media “must take accountability for their own faults”.

Bora said she had personally visited the protest site at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium in Ranchi and raised serious concerns over the conditions faced by protesters, including those undertaking hunger strikes.

Ranojay Sengupta, state secretary of the Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA), who also addressed the press conference, criticised the Bengal government over the recruitment controversy and raised questions over employment promises made by the BJP government in the state.

Sengupta said the Left would continue to support teachers and young people affected by recruitment disputes and extend solidarity to student movements against examination irregularities elsewhere in the country.

(Arghya Chakravorty is an intern with The Indian Express, Kolkata)