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Pargat Singh demands Pradhan’s resignation over NEET row, demands fixed exam calendar
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All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and former Punjab education minister Pargat Singh on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, alleging that “repeated paper leaks” and “examination irregularities” severely undermined the credibility of India’s national testing system. Citing media reports, Singh said India has witnessed 89 suspected paper leak cases over the past decade, affecting nearly 6.2 crore students. “As many as 48 examinations were reconducted, and 22 were cancelled before being held. Since 2019, at least 64 major examinations across 19 states faced paper leak allegations, including 45 government recruitment tests, with several being cancelled or postponed.”Addressing a press conference in Hoshiarpur, Singh said, “The National Testing Agency (NTA) failed to ensure the integrity of key national examinations, resulting in the leakage, cancellation and postponement of several tests, including NEET-UG and UGC-NET.” Calling for accountability, Singh urged the Centre to initiate an investigation into the alleged nexus between the paper leak mafia and those responsible for conducting examinations. He also sought comprehensive reforms to strengthen the examination system and prevent future breaches. Among his key demands, Singh called for the introduction of a fixed annual calendar for NEET-UG, UGC-NET and major recruitment examinations. “Examination schedules should be announced well in advance and accompanied by clearly defined timelines for recruitment and appointments to reduce uncertainty for students and job aspirants,” he said. Highlighting the financial burden borne by families, Singh claimed, “More than 22 lakh families spend approximately Rs 1.32 lakh crore annually on NEET preparation alone. The amount is nearly equivalent to India’s annual education budget of around Rs 1.40 lakh crore, reflecting the enormous investment made by students and parents in pursuit of educational opportunities.” “The aspirations of millions of young Indians cannot be held hostage to an unreliable examination system. Recurring irregularities have eroded public confidence in competitive examinations,’ he said.Story continues below this ad Referring to employment concerns, the Congress leader said, “Competitive examinations are often projected as pathways to stable careers, but opportunities remain limited. Only a small proportion of candidates eventually secure permanent salaried jobs.” He expressed concern over the employment prospects of technical graduates. The Congress leader said the party would continue to raise concerns of students and youth across the country. “Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and the Congress remain committed to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness in the education and recruitment systems. The future of our youth must be protected. The Congress stands firmly with students and parents and will continue to fight for justice and systemic reform,” he added.
As citizens of this ‘mother of democracy’, we have a right to demand accountability from those who are supposed to be servants of us, ‘the people.’ 6 min readJun 28, 2026 06:16 AM IST First published on: Jun 28, 2026 at 06:15 AM IST There could not be a more perfect week to talk about corruption. Speaking for myself, I admit that my head has been reeling because of the number of times I have lately heard the word corruption uttered. From the ‘cockroaches’ protesting in Jantar Mantar to the dirty linen tumbling out of the temple in Ayodhya to the ‘double-engine’ chief minister caught in nepotistic land deals in Ujjain, corruption has become hard to ignore. On the day that this column’s deadline looms, I make it a point to go to the gym and spend at least an hour on the treadmill watching the news. It helps me examine my thoughts and follow the latest events. This time, as I was gloomily brooding over the way in which corruption has suddenly exploded onto the national political landscape, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh popped up on my screen. It stunned me to hear him smilingly declare that it was because of the ‘double-engine’ government in Uttar Pradesh that the state has become number one. It has not. But, instead of being a basket case, the state Yogi Adityanath has governed with an iron hand (and many bulldozers) for nearly a decade has improved in some ways.What struck me about Yogi’s speech was that reference to his ‘double-engine’ government, because it is from these supposedly idyllic states that the biggest corruption stories are coming. The Ram temple in Ayodhya has been built under the direct supervision of Bulldozer Baba, so it is extraordinary that he never got a hint of gold, silver, expensive jewellery and cash being looted from the offerings that devotees made in good faith. It is just as extraordinary that the trustees of the temple’s funds did not notice what was going on. They must explain why they disregarded advice, given long ago, to have the temple’s offerings counted professionally. What we are beginning to see in all the cases that have surfaced is a criminal lack of accountability. Last week, yet another young Indian committed suicide because he could not face another NEET examination. This adds to the grim count of around a hundred students committing suicide over NEET in the past five years, with the highest toll last year. The Cockroach Janata Party is right to demand that the education minister resign since he is directly responsible for the mess in the examination system. It is the demand for Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation that made them spend all last week in protest in Jantar Mantar. But, judging by the effusive birthday greetings the Prime Minister posted on Friday, there seems little chance of his resignation. As citizens of this ‘mother of democracy’, we have a right to demand accountability from those who are supposed to be servants of us, ‘the people.’ But somehow, the man who calls himself the Pradhan Sewak (prime servant) has not noted how much his fair image is being damaged by the reckless absence of accountability that his ministers and chief ministers are showing. Does he know that corruption is now so publicly displayed that in Mumbai, when the Vidhan Sabha is in session, ministers stay in the Oberoi Hotel? Who pays for this and why? And who pays for the Range Rovers, Land Cruisers and BMWs that remain parked in the hotel’s porch all day? Maharashtra, in case you may have forgotten, is another double-engine government. Corrupt politicians are now so plentiful that people have stopped expecting that Modi will live up to that promise he made long ago. ‘Na khaunga, na khaane doonga’. Loosely translated, because in English eating is the wrong word, what he said was that he would not be lining his own pockets, nor would he allow anyone else to line theirs. Corruption was one of the reasons why the Congress Party lost that Lok Sabha election twelve years ago, so this promise was
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