Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan declared on Tuesday that “truth has prevailed” in light of the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the contentious exam, accusing the opposition of attempting to foment “anarchy” and “civil unrest” through the NEET-UG debate.
Mr. Pradhan stated that the final results for the medical entrance 2024 NEET-UG exam will be revealed in two days based on the Supreme Court’s remarks, and that the opposition should apologize to the students and their parents for “misleading” them.
The court rejected the arguments on Tuesday asking for the 2024 NEET-UG to be canceled and retested, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to draw the conclusion that the exam had been “vitiated” due to a “systemic breach” of its sanctity.
The interim verdict, to be followed by a detailed and reasoned order, came as a shot in the arm for the embattled BJP-led NDA government and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which were facing strong criticism and protests, on streets and in Parliament, over alleged large-scale malpractices like question paper leak, fraud and impersonation in the prestigious test held on May 5.
The revised final results of the exam will be announced taking into account marks of a physics question, which the NTA said had two correct answers. The revised result likely to reduce the number of toppers as 44 out of 61 toppers had shared the top rank because of this.
“The apex court dismissed the pleas seeking cancellation and re-test of the 2024 NEET-UG, holding that there was no evidence on record to conclude that the sanctity of the exam has been violated. Today’s verdict on NEET-UG will put speculation to rest and provide relief to lakhs of hardworking and honest students,” Pradhan told a press conference here.
“The judgement will open the eyes of those who rubbished the Indian examination system and grabbed this opportunity for vested interests, scoring political brownies and stoking ‘civil unrest and anarchy’. They should apologise for playing with the sentiments of lakhs of students and their parents as well as for trying to gain political mileage out of it,” he said.
Hailing the Supreme Court decision, the education minister said “Satyamav Jayate, truth has prevailed”.
“We have been saying this from the beginning that our priority is the students of this country. The government’s priority has always been to see that there should be no tampering with the future of students. For the last 2-2.5 months, the government’s stand has been that there has not been any large-scale breach. Today, the Supreme Court has upheld that in its final judgment,” he said.
The education minister also slammed Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for calling the country’s examination system “rubbish”, and said he and the opposition should apologise to students and their parents.
“When the NEET matter came to light, the opposition’s role became clear after the Supreme Court’s judgement today. The attitude that the Lok Sabha LoP had adopted until yesterday, invalidating the examination system of the country and calling it ‘rubbish’ proves his mental status…Criticizing this, Rahul Gandhi ji has criticized India,” he said.
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