Hitting out at the central government over NEET re-examination following irregularities, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that paper leaks have become a norm in India and the entire education system involved it, but no action is being taken against the guilty, pointing out that the issue is related to the future of the country's youth.
During his interaction with students at the 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme in Uttarakhand's Dehradun, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha said a political consensus is needed to paper leaks, while also targeting India's education system and saying it is from the 19th century. The education system is government-centric, but India now needs a system that student-centric, he added.
Rahul also said that only one per cent follows the path of paper leaks, but it hurts the 99 per cent who are 'honest and poor'. Providing a data, the former Congress president said around 7.5 crore students were affected due to paper leaks and 152 such cases were reported, but no action was taken.
"Yet, the reality is that the conviction rate is zero. Not a single person has gone to jail or been punished in connection with these cases," Rahul, who is a Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli, said.
"It represents merely the 10 per cent tip of the iceberg. The truth is, we do not know the actual number of leaks because we do not know how many go undetected. This is a central issue concerning the future of India's youth. It is an insult to you and your parents; it is an insult to your hard work and dedication," he added.
The senior Congress leader claimed that 'high technology' is being used for paper leaks. He said that if a person has crores of rupees, then he or she can select which paper they "want from a menu card". Because of this, incidents of paper leaks have continuously increased in India, he said.
"Out of 9 crore aspirants, only 6 lakh succeed. This is a large number... You only pursue this path if you were the one who stood first among those fifty students. The others, those who came second, third, or fourth, could not cross this threshold," Rahul added.
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