Protests have been taking place all over the country ever since the Ministry of Education on Wednesday said that the University Grants Commission–National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) conducted to appoint Assistant Professor posts in universities and colleges and determine the eligibility of junior research fellowships, was cancelled as there was a chance that it had been compromised.

This is the second incident since National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) when 63 cases of students using unfair means were reported in NEET-UG this year. There were various reports of paper leaks as well.

About nine lakh students sat for the UGC-NET exam this year that took place on June 18. Soon after, reports emerged that the examination was cancelled leaving lakhs of students perplexed and anxious.

“Nine lakh students had participated in the UGC-NET exam that the NTA conducted on June 18... The ministry saw that there was a chance that the examination had been compromised. The ministry has decided to cancel the examination. The next date will be declared soon. The matter has been referred to the CBI,” Govind Jaiswal, joint secretary, Ministry of education, said at a briefing.

He said that no complaints were received about the exam and action was taken on the basis of inputs available with them to protest students’ interest.

The ministry official said it won't hesitate in taking action against those guilty. Jaiswal said the details of the inputs cannot be shared as the matter has been referred to the CBI and is currently under investigation.

"A fresh date for the exam will be announced soon," he added.

Speaking to The Citizen, Rekha Tiwari, who hails from Uttarakhand and has travelled to Delhi for her exam said that this has left her disappointed and demotivated.

“I travelled for 11 hours to reach my centre, where so many students were sitting for NET. It was so hot and the Centre was so far away. I just reached my hometown and now I am hearing they have cancelled the exams, it is hopeless,” Tiwari said.

While students have to pay a fee to apply for the exams, they also take coaching to prepare for such competitive examinations. “I don’t think I can sit if they decide to conduct the exam again. I can’t afford to travel again and leave my ongoing course,” she said.

Tiwari is a master’s student and had applied for NET. Like her, many students had to travel for long hours just to give the examinations and the cancellation has left them uncertain and angry about the way things are being conducted.

A student based in Arunachal Pradesh who had applied for NET told The Citizen how she and many others like her travelled in heavy rain to reach the centre.

“It was raining cats and dogs in Itanagar (where the centre was) and there was a long queue for women. We have to stand in the rain for almost 45 minutes just to enter the gate of the college where the exam was conducted. But now, everything is in vain. Also, the number of women candidates was at least five times more than men,” she said.

Protests took place in Delhi and other parts of the country. Members of the Congress-affiliated NSUI, protesting outside Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's home, were detained.

The NSUI's national president Varun Choudhary appealed to the education minister to take immediate and decisive action - banning the National Testing Agency (NTA) and initiating legal proceedings against its officials.

Meanwhile, the All India Students' Association, the student wing of the Left, demonstrated outside Shastri Bhawan in Delhi. Visuals from the spot showed the police detaining the protesters and shoving them into vans. The protesters held posters that read “First NEET, then NET! NTA's hall of shame is full”.

The Democratic Students' Federation, an independent Left student organisation of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, according to their Facebook page, called for the scrapping of the NTA.

Students clashed with the police, climbed on cars, and broke through barricades as they held up posters and raised slogans calling for an investigation into the serious charges of corruption and paper leaks. The police moved in, promptly detaining several protesters, who alleged a “brutal police attack” on them, and demanded their immediate release.

Speaking to The Citizen Deepak Kumar, a student activist, who also sat for the exam blamed NTA for the recent mishaps and said that strict action needs to be taken against the Central government run agency.

“There was lax behavior at the exam centre, which I found really doubtful. The moment I opened the question paper it raised doubts within me. It was set as a D group vacancy paper. But the main question is how can this happen? An exam that is given by 60 lakh students is compromised is a big deal,” he said.

He added that NTA has been given a lot of power, which they are not being able to handle. “The Centre government just wants to fulfil its agendas through NTA,” he said.

The agency conducts the NTA-NET exam across 541 centres pan India. M Jagadesh Kumar, the UGC chairman, had said that 81 per cent of 11.21 lakh candidates had appeared for the examination across the country.

The examination is conducted to determine the eligibility of Indian nationals for 'Assistant Professor' as well as 'Junior Research Fellowship and Assistant Professor' in Indian universities and colleges. The UGC-NET is conducted by the NTA in Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode.

After the examination was cancelled, the opposition parties attacked the Narendra Modi government. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the PM is more concerned about the Speaker's election.

“It was being said that Modi ji stopped the Russia-Ukraine war. But for some reasons, Narendra Modi has not been able to stop or doesn't want to stop paper leaks in India,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi alleged that the silence (of govt) is because the PM is crippled and Narendra Modi's main agenda right now is the (election of) Speaker.

“He is bothered about his government and Speaker… The PM has psychologically collapsed and he will struggle to run a government like this. Modi's idea of running the government is to generate fear in people. But now people are not scared of him,” ANI quoted Gandhi as saying.

The Congress leader alleged that the reason behind paper leaks is that the education system has been captured by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) parent organisation.

“Till the time this is not reversed, paper leaks will go on. Modi ji facilitated this capture. It is an anti-national activity,” claimed Gandhi.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on X,"How the Modi government has ruined the country's education and recruitment system -- Paper leaks, fraud and gross irregularities in NEET, UGC-NET, CUET (Common University Entrance Test) have now been exposed. The much-publicised NRA – National Recruitment Agency is completely defunct."

The Citizen tried to approach UGC Chairman Kumar for comments on the matter, but he is yet to respond.

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NIKITA JAIN