"21 students died, BJP garlanded Pradhan": Congress slams Govt over NEET leak row

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday criticised the felicitation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Parliament following his resignation, saying he was honoured "as if he had returned after fighting a war with Pakistan." Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Gogoi referred to the alleged NEET paper leak controversy and said 21 students had died by suicide during Pradhan's tenure. He questioned the government's decision to felicitate the former minister despite the controversy surrounding the examination irregularities.

During the debate, Gogoi argued that the proposed measures to tackle paper leaks would not address the underlying problem, claiming that the existing 2024 law had failed to prevent examination leaks. He alleged that the legislation reflected the government's failure and questioned how another alleged large-scale paper leak could occur in 2026 if the existing law had been effective. Gogoi also referred to several accused in the alleged NEET paper leak case who were later granted bail, including Sanjeev Mukhiya, Ranjit Kumar Barua, Amit Kumar Singh, Pankaj Kumar and Rakesh.

Gogoi further criticised Dharmendra Pradhan's handling of the alleged 2024 examination controversy, alleging that the former Education Minister had initially denied that any paper leak had taken place. Pradhan resigned as Union Education Minister on July 25 following more than a month of protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar, where demonstrators had demanded government accountability over the alleged examination irregularities.