ISLAMABAD: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday shared a post about an 18-year-old National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) aspirant from Nagpur who discovered his assigned exam centre was not in his city or state, but in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, some 2,500 kilometers away.
In a post on X, Gandhi criticized the National Testing Agency (NTA), calling the incident another example of the stress and uncertainty faced by students under the country's examination system.
According to Gandhi, the student's family lacked the financial means to arrange international travel at such short notice, while the candidate did not even possess a passport, preventing him from appearing in the examination.
"How did this even happen?" Gandhi asked, adding that “no student should have had any complaint about not being able to reach their center".
"A system that can't provide a center in a child's own city but can send them abroad instead—it has no right to conduct exams," Gandhi wrote.
The criticism continues
According to Indian media, the family had opted for Nagpur as their first choice, followed by Wardha and Bhandara, all within Maharashtra.
For the original NEET examination as well, he had been assigned to a center in Nagpur.
His father, Mohammad Talib, told the media that the boy was so disturbed that he initially refused to appear for the examination at all.
The exam, which was earlier conducted on May 3, was cancelled following allegations of irregularities in the examination process.
The parody "Cockroach Janta Party" (CJP), a satirical group whose name echoes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was formed to protest these irregularities in India's examination system.
Led by founder Abhijeet Dipke, the group has staged protests across India demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has faced criticism from opposition parties and student groups over the handling of several high-profile entrance and recruitment exams.
"Stop gambling with our children's future. They deserve a sensitive, responsible, and accountable education system and exam authority," Gandhi concluded.
After receiving complaints, the NTA acknowledged its mistake, saying it was a technological error and assigned the candidate a centre in Nagpur.
