BJP and Congress on Wednesday engaged in a political slugfest on NEET issue with the former demanding an apology from Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and the latter announcing it will hold nationwide protests on Friday over alleged irregularities in the medical entrance examination demanding justice for students.
Seeking an apology from Priynaka, the BJP also sought legal action against her a day after the Allahabad High Court said the NTA can take action against a NEET aspirant who submitted fake documents alleging the testing agency failed to declare her result.
Latching on the high court's order, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged Priyanka had recently posted a social media message of this NEET aspirant who had made some "outlandish claims" about her result in NEET exam "including torn OMR, lesser marks being given to her".
"Turns out this girl Ayushi Patel, who claimed her OMR was torn and marks were not correct, had provided fake documents even to court and made false claims about her OMR being torn," he wrote a social media message, citing Priyanka's June 10 post on the micro-blogging site.
He slammed the Congress accusing it of running a "jhooth ki dukan" and demanded that a probe be also conducted into the matter to ascertain if the Congress had "sponsored" Patel to make false claims.
Sharing on the social media the video of Patel claiming some irregularities in declaration of her NEET result recently, Priyanka had demanded that the government will have to take serious steps to correct these irregularities.
"Lakhs of children prepare hard for exams like NEET and spend the most precious moments of their lives in this preparation. The whole family puts their faith and strength in this effort. But year after year, paper leaks and irregularities related to results of these exams have come to the fore," she had written in her post.
"Shouldn't the accountability of the agencies conducting the exams be fixed? Shouldn't the government give up its careless attitude and seriously consider the exam system?" she also asked.
"We cannot see the dreams of our young friends being shattered like this. This injustice being done by the system with their hard work must stop. The government will have to take serious steps to correct these irregularities," she had said.
The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday said Patel, who had alleged in her petition that the National Testing Agency (NTA) failed to declare her result and that her OMR answersheet was found torn, had submitted forged documents and the NTA can take legal action in the matter.
This came after NTA, on the direction of the high court's Lucknow bench, produced before it the original OMR answer sheet of the student which was found to be intact.
The NEET aspirant in her petition had claimed that NTA sent her a communication saying her result would not be declared as her OMR sheet was found torn. She had also posted a video on social media repeating the allegations that caused a stir amid the ongoing row over claims of irregularities in the conduct of the undergraduate medical entrance exam NEET.
The petitioner had demanded that her OMR sheet be evaluated manually. She had also called for an inquiry against NTA and demanded that the counselling for admission be stopped.
Meanwhile, Congress said it will hold protests in all state headquarters on Friday over the alleged irregularities in medical entrance exam NEET, demanding justice for the students.
