Students holding placards protest outside the Ministry of Education against the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination at New Delhi on Thursday. Reuters

Modi surprisingly lost a parliamentary majority in a general election that ended this month partly because of joblessness, especially among the youth, exacerbated by frequent leaks of test papers for government jobs that are coveted by many Indians for the security.

Having to rely on fickle allies to run his third government, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) next faces local elections in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra where it did badly in the national vote.

The government cancelled an examination done earlier this week for university and college teachers as well as doctorate courses, based on early inputs from a government cyber-crime analysis team that the “integrity of the aforesaid examination may have been compromised.”

It said in a statement the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would probe the matter.

The Ministry of Education said it had also sought a report from police into “certain irregularities alleged” in running another test for admission in undergraduate medical programmes in May.

Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, in a series of strong remarks about the row over medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024 (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), said that paper leaks will continue in the country as long as the universities remain “captured” by the BJP.

A paper leak, he added, is an “anti-national activity” since it “hugely hurts the country’s young people, who are the country’s future.”

“Paper leaks are happening because all the universities and their vice-chancellors have been captured by the BJP and its parent organisation. They have penetrated the educational institutions and destroyed them... As long as this capture cannot be reversed, paper leak will continue,” he added.

Pointing to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi — who earlier called BJP-ruled states the “epicentre of paper leaks” — on Thursday said this is now being taken across the country.

“Vyapam happened in Madhya Pradesh. Now the government is spreading it across the nation,” he said at a press conference held to discuss NEET, over which the opposition has been solidly backing the students.

The students, he said, are suffering as the government is not interested in stopping paper leaks.

Since June 4, when the NEET results were declared, the country has been rocked by students’ protests that have been amplified by the opposition.

There have been allegations of massive irregularities, with multiple students scoring an unprecedented full marks and around 1,500 students getting grace marks.

The students have been demanding that the entire exam be held again.

After four arrested men allegedly confessed that the papers were leaked the night before the exam, the government has cancelled the UGC-NET exam, admitting that its integrity might have been compromised as well.

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had earlier dismissed the possibility of paper leak in NEET.

The BJP’s media cell chief Amit Malviya, meanwhile declared that the Congress and its ally Rashtriya Janata Dal are responsible for the NEET paper leak.

“Priyanka Vadra fired the first salvo to cover up the scam by posting video of fraud Arushi Patel. I.N.D.I Alliance leaders would have made crores, by covering up the scam, had they come to power.

“They now stand exposed,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The Congress and RJD are responsible for #NEET paper leak. Priyanka Vadra fired the first salvo to cover up the scam by posting video of fraud Arushi Patel. I.N.D.I Alliance leaders would have made crores, by covering up the scam, had they come to power.

Nearly 24 lakh students appeared for the NEET-UG 2024 for undergraduate medical courses on May 5. The results, announced at least 10 days before schedule, has triggered a massive furore.

Agencies