NEET scam is Vyapam 2.0, says Congress amid paper leak allegations

New Delhi: Amidst the raging controversy over the alleged paper leak and irregularities in NEET 2024, the Congress Party has attacked the government and said that only a Supreme Court-monitored forensic probe can safeguard the future of lakhs of young students.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the Modi government has started "covering up the NEET scam" through Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the National Testing Agency (NTA). 

"If the paper was not leaked in NEET then -- why were 13 accused arrested in Bihar due to paper leak? Did the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Patna police not expose the payment of Rs 30 lakh-Rs 50 lakh to the education mafia and organised gangs involved in the racket in exchange for papers?" he said in a post in Hindi on X.

If according to the Modi government, no paper was leaked in NEET, then why were these arrests made, he asked. "What conclusion is drawn from this? Was the Modi government trying to fool the people of the country earlier or now? The Modi government has crushed the aspirations of 24 lakh youth," Kharge said.

Twenty four lakh youth appear in NEET exam to become doctors, and work hard day and night for one lakh medical seats, he said. "Out of these 1 lakh seats, around 55,000 are in government colleges where seats are reserved for SC, ST, OBC, EWS categories. This time the Modi government has misused the NTA and has massively rigged the marks and ranks, due to which the cut-off for reserved seats has also increased," the Congress chief alleged.

It appears that a game of grace marks, paper leaks and rigging was played to deprive meritorious students from getting government admission at concessional rates, Kharge said.

Addressing a press conference on the issue at the AICC headquarters, Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera claimed that the "NEET scam is Vyapam 2.0" and the Modi government wants to whitewash it, reports PTI.

The scam in Vyapam or Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board broke out in 2013, wherein candidates had bribed officials and rigged exams by deploying imposters to write their answer sheets.

Pradhan's brazen statement of calling widespread protests, multiple court cases and tremendous outrage by students as "motivated" is like rubbing salt on the wounds of 24 lakh aspirants, whose future is being destroyed by the BJP, Khera said.

Posing questions to PM Modi and Pradhan, Khera asked is it not true that the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Patna Police (Bihar) which is probing the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak, has found medical aspirants paid huge sums ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh each to 'brokers' involved in the racket, to get access to question papers ahead of the examination on May 5.

"Can the Education Minister deny that a NEET-UG cheating racket has been busted in Gujarat's Godhra involving three people including a person who runs coaching centre, a teacher and one another, wherein the investigation in the case has revealed transaction worth over Rs 12 crore between students, their parents and the accused?" he said.

Is it not a fact that this year, in 2024, there were 67 toppers who were given a perfect score of 720, while in 2023, the number was just two, Khera said. Is it not true that this year saw an abnormal increase in the students getting scores above 690, he asked.

"Is it not true that multiple NEET-UG 2024 toppers belong to the same state and have similar roll numbers? Were they from the same examination centres?" he said. Is it not true that the results of the NEET Examination were declared 10 days earlier, Khera further asked.

Khera asked why did the Modi government and the NTA "inflate" marks versus ranks, this year.

"The complete result of last year and this year of students scoring 580 plus should be made public by NTA if the Modi government claims that the entire examination process is transparent. The centres of students scoring 580 plus should also be made public to see how many students travelled far off from their place to take NEET exam," he said.

Khera said the board marks should also be correlated with NEET marks for last year and this year to see how much the data correlates. "The videos of centres where there are major high scorers must be released so that this scam can be identified as OMR was filled after exam or at NTA office or some impersonation happened so that the truth comes out," he said.

Only a Supreme Court-monitored forensic probe is a solution to safeguard the future of lakhs of young students, Khera asserted.

Cancellation of grace marks:

This year's NEET UG 2024 exam was mired in controversies after a paper leak scam was revealed in Bihar. Around 13 people, including four examinees and their family members, were arrested in Bihar for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. Patna police sources had previously claimed that the NEET-UG question papers along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024.

Then, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, which took over the investigation, revealed that the brokers involved in the NEET paper leak scam took between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh from each of the medical aspirants in exchange for giving them the question paper of the NEET UG 2024 question paper ahead of the examination.

Several pleas were filed in this connection against NTA alleging discrepancies in the NEET UG 2024 exam.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NEET UG 2024 shocked many as 67 candidates secured AIR 1, multiple candidates from a single centre secured full marks and some also secured 718 or 719 marks out of 720 marks, which seems impossible considering the NEET marking scheme.

When NTA tried to defend the results saying that several candidates were issued grace marks to compensate for the loss of time during the exam, further questions were raised. Pleas were also filed against NTA before the Supreme Court challenging the policy of granting grace marks.

Amid the uproar, the Union Government's counsel yesterday informed the Supreme Court that the committee set up in this regard recommended withdrawing the grace marks of 1563 candidates and informing them of their original scores, obtained without the grace marks.

It has been proposed that these 1563 candidates would be given a choice of retaining their original scores (without grace marks) or appear in a retest, which will be held on 23rd June. The results of the retest will be published before 30th June, 2024 so that the NEET UG 2024 counselling could start from 6th July, 2024.

The other pleas filed before the Supreme Court in connection with the paper leak issues are listed for further hearing on July 8, 2024.