On the call of the party high command, the leaders and workers of Uttar Pradesh Congress, on Friday, held a statewide demonstration against the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024 and demanded a probe under the supervision of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.
In Lucknow, the Congress protested against the rigging in NEET. Party’s state president Ajay Rai was detained by the police.
Under the leadership of Ajay Rai, Congress workers and leaders left the UPCC headquarters to gherao the Vidhan Sabha. However, after going a little further, the police stopped them by putting barricades. The Congressmen had a heated argument with the police.
Meanwhile, party leaders including Ajay Rai started moving forward by crossing the barricading. The police forcibly stopped them and there was a lot of pushing and shoving too. After this, the police forcibly took the UPCC president and scores of party leaders and workers into custody and took them to Eco Garden only to release them later in the evening.
During this time, the Congress workers demanded cancellation of the medical entrance examination in the interest of the students and resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Talking to media persons, Rai alleged that there was a technical glitch in the examination and unfair means were used.
“In the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana, many accused of rigging the NEET have been arrested due to which the entire examination is surrounded by apprehension. The future of the youth is being played with in the BJP-ruled states. Incidents of paper leaks are happening every day,” Rai alleged while demanding an inquiry under a sitting judge of the apex court besides resignation of the prime minister and the Union education minister.
Congress workers and leaders in other districts, including Kanpur Nagar, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Ayodhya, Moradabad, Meerut, Bareilly, also staged protests outside the offices of the district magistrates over the rigging in the NEET and demanding action in the matter.
At many places, several Congressmen were also taken in custody for trying to burn the effigies of the BJP ministers. Interestingly even the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists burnt the effigy of the Union education minister outside the district magistrate’s office in Kanpur Nagar.
There have been allegations of question paper leaks in states like Bihar and other irregularities in the prestigious exam. The allegations have led to protests in several cities and filing of petitions in several high courts as well as the Supreme Court. The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has called for immediate action against the National Testing Agency (NTA) amid the cancellation of the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) conducted on June 18.
The NEET was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets was completed earlier.
