When news broke that the paper for this year's NEET exam was leaked and sold for massive sums, throwing millions of students into total shock and panic, the tragedy led to over 20 students taking their own lives. This paved the way for the birth of a student-youth movement called the CJP (Cockroach Janta Party) and triggered a wave of protest demonstrations that rocked the nation's capital from June 6 to July 25. The ripples of that have not yet died out. As the Modi government — forced to take measures like seeking the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and restructuring the NTA — was attempting to restore calm through various remedial actions, it has now been forced to cancel the UGC-NET examinations for English, Commerce, and Sociology. The NTA (National Testing Agency) took a month and a half after the exam to publish the provisional answer key for 84 subjects. Once news spread across the country that numerous factual, structural, and translation-related errors had crept into the question papers, the examinations in those respective subjects had to be cancelled, and re-examinations were announced for September 9 and 10. Immediately after the exams concluded in June, students and academicians had come forward pointing out severe errors and grammatical mistakes in the question papers. However, the NTA refused to admit its mistake. They needlessly dragged out the publication of the answer key and the declaration of results. It is pointed out that while the Modi government was left standing red-faced — having sacrificed the Monsoon Session of Parliament itself to cover up its embarrassment over the NEET paper leak — the NTA delayed the cancellation of the NET exam and the announcement of the re-examination out of 'caution', believing it unnecessary to disclose yet another disgusting incident to the public for the time being. The assertion by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi that under a Modi government incapable of conducting even a single examination properly, it is the students who end up suffering the punishment, cannot be easily disputed. Although the ministry under the new Education Minister Pralhad Joshi claims that 50 people from the NTA have been dismissed, their identities have not been disclosed. When student protests intensified following the NEET paper leak, the NTA had previously terminated 47 people. Reportedly, only 32 people are permanent employees of the NTA, while the remaining 197 work on an outsourced contract basis. As long as it remains unclear who those terminated earlier and now actually are, it is reasonable to assume that mostly the ones asked to leave were contract employees. The permanent employees, naturally, are likely to be favorites of the BJP-RSS leadership.
Also read: Omar Abdullah demands states regain control over NEET and JEE exams
In truth, the issue is not merely the question paper leaks in the NEET and NET examinations or the incompetence of the NTA. The country has been watching ever since 2014 the Hindutva government being engaged in an effort to overhaul the entire Ministry of Education — a vital human resource sector. The defining feature of this era is that science and technology are making massive leaps, radically reshaping the picture of the world. Correspondingly, it is a primary necessity for India — the world's most populous nation with 1.4 billion people — to undergo fundamental and cutting-edge transformation. Otherwise, the country will not even be able to hold its ground before the world. Our future generations will stand helpless in the face of ultra-modern human development. Even now, our youth population has turned into the largest unemployed workforce in the world. However, this is not the concern or interest of India's rulers. The planned endeavour is to drag the entire education sector miles backward by chasing millennia-old epics and stories, making delusional claims that we had invented everything long ago. Meanwhile, there must be vision, planning, and practical steps to entrust the education system and its implementation to qualified scholars, scientists, and experts — selected without regard to caste, religion, or language — to deliver the timely education essential for the world, the nation, and future generations. For a great nation like India, which gave birth to luminaries from Nobel laureate C. V. Raman to A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, this is by no means an unattainable goal. But those who govern must possess an open mind, good intentions, and a sense of purpose.