NEW DELHI: Amid the raging row over medical entrance exam NEET, former HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday demanded a probe by Supreme Court-appointed officials into allegations of irregularities and called on the government to have a thorough consultation with all states as to how this examination is to be held in future.
In an interview with PTI, the Rajya Sabha MP also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue, saying if the testing system in any examination becomes corrupt then it is “not really neat for the PM to remain silent”.
Sibal urged all political parties to raise the matter strongly in the upcoming session of Parliament but was not optimistic about it being taken up for discussion, predicting that the government will not allow it citing that the matter is sub-judice.
“The present National Testing Agency (NTA) has really bungled and corruption has been brought to light on media platforms, such as providing solutions for question papers for something like becoming a doctor,” Sibal, who was the Human Resource Development (now the portfolio is Education) minister from May 29, 2009 to October 29, 2012, said.
“Some of these incidents in Gujarat have perplexed me and are a matter of great national concern. I think NTA should answer some of these very serious questions,” he said.
Sibal said what is even more surprising and disappointing is that whenever something like this happens and there is corruption under the aegis of the present government, the “andh bhakts” start blaming the UPA for it and that is most unfortunate because they don’t seem to be fully educated before making statements of this nature.
He pointed out that the NEET regulation was introduced in 2010 by the Medical Council of India (MCI) through its board of directors. The MCI was under the ministry of health and not under the ministry of education.
“So, I as the minister of HRD had nothing to do with this. The medical council of India board of governors introduced a regulation, saying there should be a national eligibility test for students getting admitted to MBBS course. The regulation was challenged by writ petitioners and it was struck down by the Supreme Court on July 18, 2013, saying the MCI has no legislative competence to introduce NEET which is an all India eligibility entrance test,” he said.
“So, after this was struck down, on April 11, 2014, a review petition was filed. The review was allowed and the order of 2013 was withdrawn,” he said.
“The BJP government came to power and on April 28, 2016, a writ petition was filed in Supreme Court, saying since the order striking down the NEET regulation has been withdrawn, why isn’t the regulation issued by MCI under board of governors, not being implemented,” Sibal said.
Thereafter, on August 4, 2016, the then BJP government introduced section 10D and the Indian Medical Council Act was amended, he noted.
“On August 8, 2019, the National Medical Council Act was passed replacing the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956. It contained another section 14 which provided for the NEET examination. On October 29, 2020, the Supreme Court upheld this legislation,” he said.
“The legislation was introduced by the present government….This had nothing to do with UPA,” he added.
Sibal said he would raise the issue in Parliament if given a chance. “I do urge all political parties to raise this issue (in Parliament) because it impacts the lives of young people of the country,” he said.
PTI