Launching a scathing attack on the Modi government, AAP’s National General Secretary (Organisation) and MP Dr. Sandeep Pathak said the announcement of the NEET result along with the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections on June 4 was made to hide the failure of the system. NTA had scheduled the release of NEET result on June 14, but the Modi government released it in a hurry on June 4.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said that the claim of the BJP leaders of local level rigging in the NEET exam is completely wrong, because papers were leaked in many parts of the country. Also, there have been huge irregularities in its marking. Grace marks were given without basis, he added.
The AAP Rajya Sabha MP said now the Education Minister has taken moral responsibility for the irregularities in the examination. Therefore, the Prime Minister should apologize to the country and take resignation from his Education Minister, he added.
Addressing media persons here today, AAP National General Secretary (Organisation) and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Sandeep Pathak said the results of the Lok Sabha elections were declared on June 4 and the results of the NEET exam were also declared on June 4. The biggest and the first question is that what were the reasons that you (BJP government) declared the results of the NEET exam on the day the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced. “The biggest question before the government is whether you deliberately declared the results on the same day to suppress the institutional failures,” he said.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said today I want to put a couple of things in front of you which make it completely clear that the way the BJP government and the (Education) minister are saying that there is a localized failure in NEET, they are saying that the rigging has happened in a specific area. The arguments given by me completely demolish it. If you see, there have been two types of rigging in this NEET exam. First, the paper was leaked in Bihar, its irregularities have been caught, people have been arrested, papers were sold for Rs 50-Rs 60 lakh. After that some people were caught in Gujarat, and then in Haryana and only yesterday it came to light that it happened in Ranchi too. “So, this paper leak case is not localized. You have to understand that on the first day it was found out in one place, on the second day it was found out in another place. This is such an interstate network that wherever it has been found out so far, their secret has been exposed there. In the coming time you will see that their network is very big, so this is not a localized failure,” he said.
The AAP Rajya Sabha MP said the second big problem is of marking. Even if you set aside the paper leaks for a minute, there are irregularities in the marking. There have been many irregularities in marking like 67 people got the first rank, six children are from the same centre who came first; 718, 719 marks have been obtained which is not statistically possible and on what basis the grace marking has been given is not clear. The irregularities in marking demolish the minister’s argument. If it was a localized failure, then we could have accepted that there were one or two black sheep in one or two states, in the entire system who leaked the paper and sold it. “But when so much fraud and irregularities have come to light in your marking, then the matter of paper leak seems to be a small one. The institutional fraud comes out very clearly in marking, grace marking and all these things,” he said.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said initially, on the first day, the minister said that this is a motivated matter, some people are deliberately doing politics. On the second day, when things started coming to light, he started saying that this has happened only in one or two places. That argument collapsed because every day, it is coming to fore from a new place. He was asked that why you don’t cancel the exam, why are you so adamant that it will not be cancelled, he is giving the argument that some people who have passed will suffer, he added.
The AAP National General Secretary (Organisation) said so maybe the minister does not know how this entire exam is conducted. When this exam is conducted, the percentile is declared and then the ranking is given. If there is a difference of even two or three percentiles, then the entire ranking and cut off shifts. When the cut off shifts even a little, then thousands of children below the mark can move up and children above the mark can come down. So, in the changes that happened in the cut off, the cut offs of all the children of the general category, OBC and other reserved category children, got changed because you increased the numbers of the children who attempted the paper by selling the paper in specific areas, so the cut off changed. “So when you make alterations in the cut off in such exams, then thousands and lakhs of people are directly affected, so it is said that it should not be cancelled because those who passed will suffer, but what about those thousands of candidates who could not pass due to this cut off change, what about those who passed it in an unfair manner,” he said.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said today I want to say that this is institutional fraud and rigging. The matter of paper leak is an associated matter which should be investigated but the entire institution, NTA (National Testing Agency), has failed and the minister and the Prime Minister are directly responsible for this, he added.
The AAP Rajya Sabha MP said there are two-three more things. If you see that UGC and NET exams were also conducted and the very next day after the exam, it was scrapped because this exam was also leaked. You had a matter of leakage of one exam, you scrapped the second exam because the paper was leaked. “When cases of paper leak are coming out one after the other, what does it show? This is not a one-off matter; it is a complete systemic failure and systemic fraud,” he said.
The senior AAP leader said the constable recruitment exam was conducted in Uttar Pradesh on February 18-19, papers were leaked in that too. There is a company in Gujarat called Edutest Private Limited which was given the responsibility to conduct the exam. Does the entire government not have such a big system that you are giving it to a private company to conduct the exam. There was rigging in that exam and its owner fled to America. “Modi ji, why did you let him escape. Till date your record has been that whoever commits fraud, you hold his hand and let him away. And Yogi ji you gain fame for driving a bulldozer. Did you take the bulldozer to that company in Gujarat, to the house of that man who played with the future of your children,” he said.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said in every house in our country, when a child is born someone wants to become a doctor or engineer or wants to join the railways; someone wants to give a banking exam, someone wants to become an IAS. Wherever he goes, his parents cherish a dream that my child will grow up, he will prepare for the exam, he will pass the exam. Because there is an expectation that there will be no cheating in the exam, though I do not have money, but my child will work hard and move ahead and pass this exam. When children from villages come to the city to take exams, their parents mortgage everything they have in the village, mortgage all their property and take a rented room for the child in the city. The child studies year after year by eating dal-rice twice a day, staying on half an empty stomach, only then he passes the exam, he added.
Taking a jibe at the Prime Minister and the HRD Minister, the AAP Rajya Sabha MP said what do they know? As many as 24 lakh students appeared in NEET, 14 lakh appear in JEE, 9 lakh in UGC NET, 15-16 lakh in UPSC, 3 lakh in CAT, 13 lakh in SSC, 30-40 lakh in clerk exam, 25 lakh in Bank PO, lakhs of students appear in railways. Seventy papers have been leaked one after the other in the last 7 years. “Prime Minister ji, your government was in power for the last 10 years, please tell me even one instance of what steps you took in the case of these 70 paper leaks. You talk of building a Shreshtha Bharat (Great India), you are selling the future of your children. Where has the Shreshtha Bharat gone, please tell me even one incident where you worked. It took 8 years for the first FIR to be registered in Madhya Pradesh,” he said.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said another interesting thing is that in the last Parliament session, the Bharatiya Janata Party government brought a law called Prevention of Unlawful Activities to deal with the scams and irregularities that happen in recruitment exams. If you read this law, it will become clear to you that they have nothing to do with this issue. “Their aim is not to address this issue. They say that if sporadic incidents are found, then there will be a punishment of 4 to 5 years and a fine of Rs 5 to 10 lakh. If organised crime is found, then the punishment will be up to 10 years and fine up to Rs 1 crore. A paper is being sold here for Rs 1 crore. They want to impose a fine of Rs 1 crore on organised crime,” he said.
The AAP National General Secretary (Organisation) said today we want to tell the children of the country that they should focus on their studies, it is understandable that they will not be able to come out and protest, they will not be able to raise their voice. We will raise our voice for them, the whole country is with them, we will raise this issue strongly in the next Parliament session as well, he added.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said today we demand from the government that Prime Minister Modi should immediately apologize to the country and assure that this will not be repeated, the minister should resign and the law that has been made should be upgraded, the Supreme Court’s SIT should be constituted whenever there are cases of paper leak as a permanent measure.
The AAP Rajya Sabha MP said secondly, whoever is involved in this should be ensured life term. if one commits a mining scam by stealing, that is a small matter but if one sells the answers of the future of millions of children, then there can be no bigger treason than this, it would be wrong to consider it anything less than treason, so life term should be given for this, he added.
Dr Sandeep Pathak said whoever is responsible in the government, if it is organized crime, then the entire NTA is responsible for this. “If NTA is responsible, then the government is also responsible, the minister should answer on this,” he said.
The AAP Rajya Sabha MP demanded that the NEET 2024 should be cancelled immediately, and the exam should be conducted again. “If trust has to be earned, then this type of rigging will have to be stopped immediately. And please Prime Minister Ji, if you cannot create an institution then do not break the existing institutions, the country will be ruined,” he concluded.
