INDIA bloc plans adjournment motions in both Houses of Parliament on NEET issue

Opposition parties belonging to the INDIA bloc will move adjournment motions in both the Houses of Parliament on June 28 over the alleged irregularities in the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) and paper leaks in other public exams.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Opposition bloc, held at the official residence of Congress president and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge. The LoP in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, was also present at the meeting attended by floor leaders of parties in the alliance. Mr. Gandhi is likely to formally spell out the Opposition’s strategy on Friday morning at a media interaction just before the Lok Sabha begins.

An adjournment motion is a tool that seeks to stop all other businesses of the House and take up the issue for which the motion has been moved. On Friday, both the Houses of Parliament are expected to start the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address.

While the government is unlikely to agree to such a motion, sources indicated that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is ready to answer to queries on all issues regarding NEET and other public exams and steps taken to strengthen the National testing Agency (NTA), which conducts many of these exams. The source cited above said the Minister will intervene even during the Motion of Thanks debate since Opposition members plan to raise the issue while participating in that debate.

In her address to the joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday, President Droupadi Murmu said the Union government is fully committed to a fair investigation in the recent incidents of paper leaks and ensure that the guilty are punished. She also stressed that there is a need to rise above party politics and undertake concrete measures nationwide.

Reacting to the President’s Address, Mr. Kharge, in a post on X, said: “Listening to the President’s address written by the Modi government, it seemed as if Modi ji is in a perpetual state of denial! The mandate was against him because the people of the country rejected his slogan of “400 plus” and kept the BJP away from the figure of 272”.

The Congress chief said there was nothing in Ms. Murmu’s speech that suggested a way forward to resolve the the NEET issue. He pointed out that of the 66 recruitment exams conducted by the NTA in the past five years, paper leaks and rigging had happened in 12 due to which more than 75 lakh youth were affected.

“Modi government cannot run away from its responsibility by just simply saying that ‘we should rise above partisan politics’. The youth is demanding justice. Union Education Minister will have to take responsibility for this. Every second youth in the country is unemployed, and no concrete policy to eliminate unemployment has emerged from this speech,” Mr Kharge said.

The Congress chief also said that President Murmu’s speech didnt have anything on price rise, unemployment, violence in Manipur, terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, train accidents and the plight of passengers on trains, and atrocities on Dalits, Adivasis and minorities in BJP-ruled States.

Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D. Raja, in a post on X, said, “The first 15 days of Modi 3.0 have seen major mismanagements like frequent paper leaks, jeopardising the future of lakhs but the Government still wants to continue with a centralised and homogenising education system, which has evidently failed”.