What is the NEET-UG Controversy?
The Undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) is the mandatory entrance examination for admission to undergraduate medical programs. Every year, lakhs of medical aspirants appear in this exam, to get admission into AIIMS and other medical collages in India. In the year 2026, the examination became the subject of a major controversy. After the exam, it comes to the Government notice that, a bunch of questions from the question paper had been leaked much prior to the examination. As a result, the Government announced the cancellation of the exam and decided to go for a re-examination.
This caused significant stress and anxiety among students who appeared the exam in good faith. Some of those students committed suicide. The students and the parents organized protests in several cities. They demanded accountability from the Government. Since, it was not for the first time, such an incident took place under the same education minister Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, they demanded his resignation.
The Government’s Stand
The Government maintained that, they understand the agony and pain of the students and parents. It assured that the people, who are responsible for the leak, should be punished. However, they are not ready to yield to public pressure. They don’t want to put all the blame on the education minister. Therefore, while it expressed its willingness to engage in discussions with the protestors, it did not commit to fulfilling their demands
The Protester’s Demand
The protesters believe that the accountability lies with the Government. The education minister is not competent enough to handle the department. According to them, the resignation of the minister is the only way to ensure that, in future the ministers would take proper responsibility for their department. If they let the minister go away, there would be no accountability.
Should Dharmendra Pradhan Resign?
The education minister himself was never involved in the examination process. However, he heads the department and he is responsible for people working under him. He also bears the responsible for the student’s interest and future. So, taking the moral responsibility, he should resign.
But morality is a subjective concept. We often hear about the exemplary story of, Shri. Lal Bahadur Sashtri. The stalwart resigned from the post of Railway Minister, because of some train accident. Despite, not being personally at fault, he took the moral responsibility for the accident and its tragic outcome. That is his moral standard. We can’t expect the same set of standard as that congressman from everyone.
Ironically, 30 years ago, our current education minister used to believe that, the minister should resign on moral ground, if he failed to prevent the leakage of an examination paper. But after being on the receiving end, his view on morality and accountability appears to have changed.
Why Should The Public Protest?
Holding a protest peacefully is absolutely within the frame of our constitution. The protests are rooted in Gandhian philosophy. But we need to understand the unwritten principle of any protest. The primary purpose of a protest is to make the Government aware of public dissatisfaction with its policies or actions. It is not meant to be used as a means of coercion or to compel the Government to act under pressure. The protesting members need to communicate their issues and grievances to the Government and the Government should take appropriate steps to address them.
In the current scenario, they are demanding the resignation of a minister, who is selected through a democratic process. It is inappropriate for the people to bypass the constitution and take parliamentary decision on their own. This is as unfair as Police encounters a criminal without going through the trial process. No matter, how serious the allegation are against the minister, the process of removing him from his post, need to be taken through parliamentary process and not on streets.
The Unbiased Opinion
In the ideal Ram-Rajya, Bhagwan Ram did not use his power to silence the lone subject for his opinion about Devi Sita. He listened to his views’ no matter how disagreeable they were. The police action, in this case, is absolutely uncalled for. It is the duty of the Government to listen to its people rather than use its power to silence them. At the same time, the protesters need to respect our system, our constitution and our democratic process. Our democracy is one of the greatest strengths of our nation and distinguishes us from many others. If we disregard these institutions and abandon respect for the rule of law, we risk moving towards anarchy.