Congress Questions NTA’s ‘Partial Leak’ Claim In NEET-UG Row

Telangana Congress spokesperson Sama Ram Mohan Reddy on Friday sharply criticised the explanation given by the National Testing Agency (NTA) to a parliamentary committee regarding the NEET-UG 2026 controversy, questioning how the agency could downplay the seriousness of the alleged leak.

Reacting to remarks made by NTA Director General Abhishek Singh , who reportedly told the Parliamentary Standing Committee that only a few questions had leaked and not the entire question paper, Ram Mohan Reddy said such a distinction made little sense when the integrity of a national-level examination had already been compromised.

“Is he joking?” the Congress leader asked, arguing that even the leakage of a few questions amounted to a paper leak and was enough to undermine the credibility of the examination process. He accused the NTA of attempting to justify its failures instead of acknowledging the scale of the damage caused to students.

Ram Mohan Reddy alleged that the agency’s negligence had affected the future of more than 22 lakh students who appeared for the medical entrance examination across the country. He described the episode as a clear example of administrative failure and said the authorities should focus on learning from the lapses rather than trying to defend them.

Meanwhile, during the parliamentary panel meeting, NTA chief Abhishek Singh and Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi reportedly maintained that the leak was not caused by any structural failure within the agency’s system. They informed the committee that several reforms recommended to strengthen examination security had already been implemented, while work on additional safeguards was underway.

Officials also said the matter was under investigation by the CBI and reiterated that the exam was cancelled under the government’s “ zero-tolerance ” approach to irregularities in competitive examinations, aimed at maintaining public confidence in the system.

The committee also discussed proposals to shift NEET-UG to a Computer-Based Test (CBT) format from next year to reduce the chances of future malpractice.

The examination, conducted on May 3 across 551 cities in India and 14 international centres , was taken by over 22 lakh candidates before it was cancelled amid the leak controversy. A re-examination is now scheduled for June 21 under enhanced security arrangements following directions from the Union Education Ministry.