Gujarat Youth Congress Holds Torch Rally Over NEET Paper Leak
Youth Congress Leaders Marched In Ahmedabad, Demanding Action And Answers Over Paper Leaks
Ahmedabad witnessed another round of Youth Congress protests over the NEET paper leak row, with Gujarat Pradesh Youth Congress leaders linking the issue to wider fears about exam integrity and student trust. The rally, led by All India Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib and Gujarat Pradesh Youth Congress president Dr Pravin Singh Vanol, was part of a larger nationwide campaign that has kept pressure on the Centre over allegations surrounding competitive examinations.
From Gujarat University to Ahmedabad University, Youth Congress workers carried torches and raised demands for strict action against those they called paper leak mafias, along with the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The group also repeated its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee, or JPC, to probe the matter and pressed for the National Testing Agency, or NTA, to be scrapped.
The protest comes at a time when exam credibility remains a sensitive issue in India. The NTA has repeatedly denied a full paper leak in NEET-UG 2024, saying the claims circulating on social media were “completely baseless and without any ground”, while the Ministry of Education has also taken steps in recent months to tighten scrutiny around exam integrity after other testing controversies.
Why The Rally Matters
NEET is the main entrance test for undergraduate medical courses in India, so any allegation of paper leakage quickly becomes a national issue because it affects students, parents and coaching centres across the country. In 2024, the NTA said 24 lakh candidates had registered for NEET-UG, making it one of the biggest entrance exams in the world, and even small doubts about fairness can damage confidence in the system.
That wider background helps explain why the Youth Congress is using torch rallies, street protests and calls for a parliamentary probe. The party’s youth wing has argued that repeated examination controversies have shaken faith in public institutions, and it has linked the NEET row with other exam disputes in India, including past CBSE paper leak cases and later concerns around other national tests.
Leaders’ Charges
Uday Bhanu Chib told the rally that “the education system in the country has become full of corruption”. He said the NEET paper leak had put the future of more than 22 lakh students in India and 85,000 students in Gujarat at risk, and added that the BJP government was protecting paper leak mafias. He also said the dreams of hardworking and talented students had been damaged.
Chib further said that Dharmendra Pradhan should “take moral responsibility and resign”, arguing that the education system had again failed to provide a fair and trustworthy exam process. The Youth Congress leader also said the movement would continue until exam reforms were made and action taken against those responsible.
Dr Pravin Singh Vanol said the education system in the country and in Gujarat had become “corrupt”, and claimed that repeated paper leaks in the state were affecting thousands of students who had worked hard for their future. He called the NEET paper leak a shameful incident and said the central government’s failure had broken the dreams of students hoping to become doctors.
Exam Integrity Issue
Paper leak allegations are especially serious in India because large entrance and board exams shape access to university, professional courses and government jobs. In 2018, CBSE had to deal with leaked Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics papers, an episode that triggered public anger and led to official denials, police action and re-examination measures.
The broader pattern matters because recurring allegations can affect how students prepare, how families spend money on coaching, and how much trust they place in testing agencies. It can also increase political pressure on the education ministry, which has faced criticism from opposition parties and student groups whenever exam systems come under suspicion.
In the NEET case, the NTA has continued to reject claims of a complete leak, while also facing demands for greater transparency and stronger safeguards. That tension between official denials and public protest has kept the issue alive in Delhi, Gujarat and other states, with Youth Congress units using the controversy to argue that the system needs deeper reform.
Gujarat’s Student Concerns
The Ahmedabad rally also reflected local concern in Gujarat, where competitive exams carry heavy weight for students aiming for medical and professional courses. The Youth Congress said 85,000 students in the state had been affected by the NEET row, a figure it used to underline the scale of the damage it believes has been done.
For many families, the issue is not only about one exam, but about whether hard work alone is enough to secure a seat. That is why allegations of leaked papers or flawed testing quickly become more than a political argument; they touch on education, fairness and social mobility.
The rally drew a large number of Youth Congress office-bearers and workers from across Gujarat, who voiced anger at the BJP government’s handling of the issue. Their protest adds to a wider wave of youth-led agitation that has been building since the NEET controversy and related exam disputes came back into the spotlight.
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