Mounting pressure on the government to fix accountability on irregularities in UGC-NET and the NEET medical entrance exams owing to growing public outcry across the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “psychologically collapsed” post-elections and was merely focused on getting his leader appointed as Lok Sabha Speaker ahead of parliament session.
At a press conference, Rahul Gandhi charged,”…It’s happening because all our institutions have been captured. Our Vice-Chancellors are placed not based on merit. But because they belong to a particular organization. And this organization and the BJP have penetrated our education system and destroyed it. What was done by Narendra Modi to the economy with demonetization, has now been done to the education system”.
“The reason this is happening and the reason you’re suffering is because an independent, objective education system has been demolished…It is very important that the people who are guilty here are brought to book and they are punished,” he told reporters
The government has only cancelled the UGC-NET exam so far.
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Hitting back at the Congress, the BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi accused the opposition party of indulging in petty politics over the alleged NEET recruitment process irregularities and insisted that the Central government was looking into the matter “very sensitively” to ensure that justice is done to every candidate.
“The government is fully sensitive and alert with regard to the NEET exam. It is also committed to ensure that no student faces any injustice and strict action is taken against those involved (in the paper leak),” Trivedi said while describing Rahul Gandhi’s remarks as “sad”.
“But the opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, who could not pass even with third division in his third attempt and got just 100 seats (in Lok Sabha polls) is trying to declare himself leader of the bright students,” he charged.
Describing it as a national, economic and educational crisis, the former Congress president said, the government is silent because PM Modi is “crippled” now.
“Right now, the PM’s main agenda is the (election of) Speaker. He is bothered about his govt and Speaker…The PM has psychologically collapsed and he will struggle to run a government like this. Modi’s idea of running govt is to generate fear in people. But now people are not scared of him. The basic concept of Modi has been destroyed in this election. If there were Vajpayee ji or Manmohan Singh ji, they might have been able to survive because they had humility, respect and conciliation. But Narendra Modi doesn’t believe in all this….,” he alleged.
On giving clean chit to the NTA, which conducted the NEET exam, by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Rahul said, they have no credibility in these matters. “If they give clean chit, it means nothing, their credibility is zero. Everybody knows that the epicentres are BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh…,” he charged. The Vyapam recruitment exam started in Madhya Pradesh, he pointed out.