Mumbai, May 14 (IANS) The Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Thursday said the integrity of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) has come under severe scrutiny once again as the Central government was forced to cancel the examination following widespread reports of a paper leak. The decision affects over 22 lakh students who must now endure the mental and financial strain of retaking the test.

The Thackeray camp in the party’s mouthpiece, ‘Saamana’, claimed that “breaking and leaking” has become the mantra of the current administration, noting that the government appears unable to conduct major examinations without scandal. While students are subjected to draconian rules, including bans on shoes, watches, and specific clothing to ensure “transparency”, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has failed to secure the question papers themselves.

The Saamana editorial said that exam papers were being sold openly in the market days before the test for lakhs of rupees. Middlemen and brokers allegedly facilitated these sales to wealthy parents looking to bypass the intense competition of legitimate admissions.

“The paper leak highlights a deep-seated nexus between corrupt officials within the NTA, printing presses, and private coaching centres. Investigations suggest that instead of paying Rs 1-2 crore for private medical college seats, wealthy candidates are offered leaked papers for Rs 25-30 lakh.
Private coaching classes allegedly use these leaks to ensure their students achieve perfect scores, which are then used in massive advertising campaigns to attract more “customers” for the following year,” stated the editorial.

It further added, “The papers were circulated across social media platforms, including Telegram, Instagram, and WhatsApp, under the guise of ‘guess papers’.

According to the editorial, the leak’s reach is extensive, with investigators tracing links to Maharashtra (Nashik, Pune, Latur), Kerala, Haryana, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Jammu & Kashmir. While the CBI has made several arrests, there is growing cynicism as previous offenders in 2017, 2021, and 2024 paper leaks often ended up out on bail. The Education Ministry faces mounting pressure to explain why the NTA did not change the paper despite early warnings of a leak a week before the exam.

“Why should honest students, who had no part in this trade, suffer this mental agony?” asked the editorial.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena remarked that while the NTA has waived registration fees for the re-examination, this offers little comfort to rural students who must again bear the costs of travel and lodging, not to mention the immense psychological toll of a compromised future.

Parents and students nationwide are now demanding accountability from a government they claim is “running away” from the issue. The Thackeray camp noted that for now, millions of aspiring doctors are left in limbo, their futures stalled by a “market of education” that continues to operate with impunity, commented the editorial.

–IANS

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