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Modi govt has failed India’s young. Exam fraud costs lives

NEET to UGC-NET—India’s competitive exams are collapsing under Modi’s watch.

Nothing exposes the catastrophic governance deficit of the Narendra Modi government more brutally than the collapse of India’s examination system. A government obsessed with slogans, PR, media narratives, and photo-ops has failed to protect the integrity of competitive exams.  

Ministers busy targeting and “fixing” the Opposition and “managing” elections, are neglecting the duties of governance. Under Modi, central institutions are either weaponised for political ends or left to decay from within. Nowhere is this institutional collapse more visible than in medical entrance examinations. And the price is being paid by lakhs of young people. 

I write this column not only as a columnist and parliamentarian but also as the mother of a doctor. My son was part of the very first batch to sit for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for undergraduates, NEET-UG, in 2013. At the time, there was genuine hope that one single national medical entrance examination would reduce the trauma of multiple tests and end the exhausting cycle of endless travel, crushing expenses, and anxiety for students and parents. Thirteen years later, that promise lies in ruins. A regime that speaks endlessly of “New India” has failed India’s young.

The human cost is devastating. A leaked paper is not merely an “irregularity”. It means a shattered, traumatised 18-year-old, a harried family, and a destroyed future. The cancellation of the NEET-UG examination this year reportedly pushed at least four young aspirants to die by suicide.  

As a mother, I have seen the crushing pressure these examinations impose. Even during the first year of NEET, confusion reigned. Some medical colleges resisted the examination, others accepted, but no one seemed to know which was which. Students travelled endlessly between cities, airports, railway stations and exam centres. Coaching classes, logistical chaos and mounting costs imposed a herculean emotional, physical and financial burden. 

And my son was among the fortunate. He had family support and financial stability. Millions do not. Across India, parents mortgage jewellery, sell land and exhaust lifetime savings to finance coaching fees and travel for examinations, which are increasingly corrupted by organised criminal networks. During my son’s NEET journey, I met many parents carrying stories of punishing hardship, all clinging to one hope: a medical seat for their child. 

In these circumstances, the cavalier attitude of the Modi government toward medical entrance examinations — both undergraduate and postgraduate — is unforgivable. 

NEET-UG paper leaks, postponements, cancellations, litigation and administrative chaos have........

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