Congress's birthday dig at Dharmendra Pradhan, lists student suicides over NEET row
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday took a swipe at Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy, invoking the
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday took a swipe at Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy, invoking the names of 14 medical aspirants who died by suicide. He did so while replying to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday post for the minister. Quoting PM Modi's post on X, Khera wrote, "Dear Dharmendra Uncle... Happy Birthday. You turn 57 today. We couldn't even reach half your age," before listing the names of the 14 aspirants.
Read Full Story In the post, Khera listed the names of medical aspirants who died by suicide between the cancellation of the NEET-UG examination held on May 3 and the re-examination conducted on June 21. The post came a day after Khera accused the BJP-led Centre of failing to fix accountability in the NEET-UG paper leak case. While addressing the media on Thursday during the launch of the Congress party's 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' (students' echo) nationwide campaign, Khera alleged that around 90 paper leak incidents had surfaced across the country over the past 10 years.
"Only small brokers and pawns have been arrested, while the real masterminds and their political patrons continue to escape accountability," he claimed. Khera also targeted Pradhan, saying, "When asked about the NEET question paper leak, the minister points fingers at the Testing Agency (NTA) and the NTA points to the CBI, which has remained a 'B-team' of the BJP. Even the prime minister has remained totally silent on the issue." He said the Centre should stop "playing with the future of students" and take moral responsibility for the incident.
"The education minister and the NTA cannot escape responsibility for this crisis. When trust in a national examination collapses, accountability must also be fixed at the national level," Khera said, demanding Pradhan's resignation on moral grounds. Ends (With inputs from PTI)
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