Students are protesting nationwide against alleged irregularities and paper leaks in the NEET Exam. While the National Testing Agency (NTA) asserts that no wrongdoing has happened, the results have another story to tell. Several arrests have been made in Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana. Facing leakage of the examination paper on the Dark Web, UGC-NET was also cancelled after the candidates appeared on June 18 across various cities.

While paper leaks are not an uncommon phenomenon in India, the scale is unprecedented. This time, around 34 lakh aspirants who appeared for the NEET and NET have been affected. On the one hand, it highlights that corruption has plumbed the depths of our education system at the national level. At the same time, it has also raised questions as to who benefits from them.

Due to the pan-India nature and the sheer logistics involved in conducting them, keeping the tests airtight is almost impossible. As long as human elements exist in conducting the exam, corruption cannot be ruled out. As the magnitude of the exercise increases, the chances of corrupt practices increase. Several state governments opposed the implementation of uniform nationwide tests due to the ever-present glitches marring them. In 2021, Tamil Nadu even passed a bill seeking exemption from the NEET as findings revealed overall inconsistency with the objectives of the examination.

The NEET particularly favours the wealthy, as seen from the skewed demographic of those who pass the exam. The NEET closely follows the CBSE curriculum, which makes it difficult for other students, especially those in state government schools and those educated in their lingua franca. Unless they can pour money into coaching centres, clearing the examinations is becoming increasingly impossible. Observers have long indicated that centrally conducted exams are in the stranglehold of the rich and the upper castes abetted by the exam mafia and coaching-centre industry. Some students have spent lakhs over the years preparing for the NEET. All of it has gone down the drain, causing untold misery and mental trauma to them and their parents, many who could not even afford it.

The NTA conducts NET on behalf of the UGC for PhD admissions and those seeking posts as assistant professors and Junior Research Fellowships. The NTA was created based on a report by directors of some IITs, which, according to various reports and the number of suicides, has been hijacked by the upper caste.

The Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has taken "moral responsibility" for the incident. He should have resigned from his office for these unprecedented and shameful scams. The poor and marginalised sections, who spend a fortune, incurring debts in dreams of cracking these exams, may eventually opt out of these exams because of the loss of credibility, leaving the field entirely for the rich and affluent, who manage to bribe corrupt people in charge of the exams and subvert the system for their benefit. Which is what the government intends. Manusmriti, in all its glory, is being implemented in the country!