Why not BLAME IT on the students? And kick the damn can down the road!
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Despite the suicide of young aspirants, repeated leaks and a total botch-up of entrance exams, including school exams, no one wants to rub the Modi regime on the wrong side. And that is why students are up in arms across the nation.
By Nalini Ranjan Mohanty in Delhi
What explains the current NTA (National Testing Agency) mess?
If one takes a close look at the Supreme Court of India’s hearing on the issue on Friday (29 May, 2026), one will get an easy answer.
On Monday, 25 May, the apex court had come down heavily on the union government and had asked:
Why has the NTA failed to learn from the 2024 question paper leak incident despite the court-mandated reform process?
Let us recall that in 2024, after the NEET (National Eligibility & Entrance Test -- for medical admissions) question paper leak became a major issue, the Supreme Court had asked the central government to set up a committee to examine the structural and procedural deficiencies in the conduct of the examinations. The Union government accordingly set up a ‘high powered reform committee’ chaired by K Radhakrishnan, former ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) chief.
The Supreme Court, on 25 May, had directed both the NTA and Radhakrishnan to file affidavits within three days explaining the steps taken on the basis of the committee’s recommendations. That’s how the Friday hearing was scheduled to examine the matter on a priority basis.
Let us recount what the Radhakrishnan committee had proposed and what was actually implemented. The committee had made a 100-point recommendations:
it had asked for a structural overhaul through the establishment of an empowered governing body;
it had also suggested the appointment of a specialised, permanent staff — and reduction of dependence on contractual staff — so that the NTA could harness the institutional memory on a perpetual basis.
As regards the procedural overhaul, the committee had recommended a fully Computer-Based Testing (CBT) method or, at least, a hybrid testing format: question papers would be encrypted and transmitted securely to the examination centres and printed just an hour before the examinations.
The committee had also suggested the introduction of multi-stage examination format for the NEET just as it has been successfully experimented with the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to prestigious engineering colleges, and with the UPSC examinations for the Civil Services.
There were many other detailed recommendations for creating a secure and credible examination process. But the government turned a blind eye to most of them.
None of the major recommendations were accepted: neither the CBT method was adopted nor the on-site printing of encrypted question papers was operationalised. The dependence on outsourced contractual staff continued as before. Most other security protocols suggested by the Radhakrishnan committee were put in the cold storage.
In this light, everyone was waiting with bated breath to know as to how would NTA defend itself before the Supreme Court during the hearing on 29 May, 2026. But, as we could see, the NTA could easily gloss over the major Radhakrishnan committee recommendations; in its affidavit, the NTA waxed eloquent on the secondary reforms that it has put in place -- how it has tightened security protocol during transportation of question papers, how it has improved CCTV surveillance in examination centres and how it has enforced biometric authentication of the candidates.
It was clear that the NTA wanted to cover the tracks for the government of India which had given a short shrift to the Radhakrishnan committee recommendations, though without formally rejecting them.
Interestingly, Radhakrishnan himself became part of the conspiracy to protect the union government before the Supreme Court. In a separate affidavit before the apex court, he virtually repeated the same claims made by the NTA in its affidavit; as if to assuage the Supreme Court’s feelings, Radhakrishnan assured that his major recommendations are under active consideration of the government. It is understandable why Radhakrishnan acted the way he did: after all, he is in the good books of the government.
How could he rub it on the wrong side?
It was incumbent on the Supreme Court to fix responsibility for the serious lapse as to why the major Radhakrishnan recommendations were not implemented. However, the apex court, as is its wont, knowingly or unknowingly, fell into the trap laid by the NTA and went on a tangent: it made the perfunctory noises about the future of hundreds of thousands of students.
Instead of taking the incompetent and recalcitrant government to task for its dereliction of duty, it kicked the can down the road.
It directed the Union government and the NTA to file an affidavit by the next hearing in mid- July “outlining a clear strategy to build an institutional memory with specialised personnel to ensure examinations are conducted without a blemish”.
(Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has said: (The Telegraph, 30 May, 2026) "CBSE called for OSM tenders thrice. Zero bids the first time. No qualified bidder the second time. And finally, the technical bar was lowered until COEMPT could clear it. Scanning resolution cut. Robotic scanner requirement dropped. CMMI certification lowered from Level 5 to Level 3. Penalties for errors in answer sheets removed,” He also highlighted how “India’s biggest IT services company” Tata Consultancy Services qualified in the third round, but “COEMPT — a company with a spectacular track record of failure — won... “And what are CBSE students complaining about today? Badly scanned answer sheets. Missing pages. A broken evaluation portal.")
With lakhs of youngsters affected (including in the CBSE botch-up and the COEMPT controversy), affected students and observers feel that both the executive and the judiciary are seemingly busy obfuscating the issue instead of fixing responsibility. Hence, it’s not difficult to imagine why the current NEET/NTA/CBSE mess is likely to persist in the years to come.
And that is a huge tragedy stalking the future of the young of the nation.
No wonder, disgusted and frustrated youngsters, including school children, are up in arms across the country!
Nalini Ranjan Mohanty is a seasoned journalist and academic. He is former Resident Editor, Hindustan Times and The Times of India (Patna Edition) and former Director, Jagran Institute of Management and Mass Communication (JIMMC).
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