New Delhi, May 12 The Opposition leaders on Tuesday claimed involvement of "mafia" or "influential people" in the NEET-UG paper leak. They said that the BJP-led Centre should be answerable to the lakhs of students and their parents who put in their years of hard work and money to prepare for the medical exam.
The Opposition's response came after the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 examination conducted on May 3 and announced that the exam would be re-conducted on dates to be notified separately.
The Rajasthan investigators are probing allegations that a “guess paper” circulated before the exam contained questions that closely matched those on the actual paper.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot highlighted that "paper leak" has not been reported for the first time.
"Lakhs of students work hard and their parents, too, put in so much effort to save enough money so that their children are able to attend coaching for these exams," he told reporters.
"Now, questions are being raised on the system itself and NTA is getting exposed," he added.
Pilot stated that since paper leaks are happening repeatedly, there must be the involvement of some "mafia" and "gangs" behind it.
"The head of such gangs must be some influential person since the questions in the main paper and 'guess paper' were exactly similar."
Later, speaking to IANS, he said accountability needs to be taken for such incidents.
"I think those responsible must stand up and take accountability. If the department is not able to conduct exams fairly, every year it's happening repeatedly, I think those responsible should have to step aside," he said.
He appealed to the Central government to pay attention to such incidents and urged for a time-bound judicial enquiry into the case. "Not a CBI but a judicial enquiry is required into the case," Pilot stressed.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj cautioned that it is possible that all the "paper leaks" have not yet come into the public eye.
"This is among those cases that we are getting to know of. There may be several unknown cases of paper leaks," he told IANS.
Bharadwaj claimed that the Supreme Court not scrapping the NEET-UG examination in 2024 despite reported irregularities, "messed with the future" of lakhs of medical students.
"The then SC verdict gave a message that even if paper leak was caught later, at least those who had received the questions beforehand and those who received money for it, would be benefitted," he said.
Trinamool Congress MP, Saugata Roy, said such incidents would "break the trust" that people have in the NTA.
Echoing similar views as Congress leader Pilot, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi said: "What will happen to those students who have been preparing hard for the exam and whose parents have spent lakhs of rupees on coaching fees."
He said that the BJP-led Central government should be answerable to those students and parents.
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