The Congress on Thursday attacked the Centre over reported errors in the UGC-NET Sociology question paper and allegations that several questions in the English paper were repeated from a previous exam, accusing the National Testing Agency (NTA) of failing to ensure the quality and integrity of the test.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the government had to deploy the full machinery of the state to conduct the re-NEET examination on June 21.
"It required the might of the armed forces and the whole of the government at every level to conduct the re-NEET on June 21, 2026."
"It reflected the complete failure of the Modi government to conduct exams without such unprecedented mobilisation," he said in a post on X.
Ramesh alleged that the NTA's performance remained poor despite promises of reforms.
"When it comes to exams that are handled by the National Testing Agency (NTA) itself, the track record continues to be atrocious."
"Questions in the UGC-NET English Exam were wholesale lifted from past papers without any changes and the UGC-NET Sociology question paper was chock-full of spelling, translation, and grammar errors," Ramesh said while sharing media reports on the issue.
"The NTA is not fit for purpose. The Mantri Pradhan, on whose watch the NTA was supposed to be reformed and strengthened, has been exposed as incompetent and callous."
"His continuation in office is a blot on our democracy and a reflection of the Pradhan Mantri's cynical political calculations," he said.
Candidates who appeared for the UGC-NET Sociology examination on June 30 alleged that the paper contained numerous spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and poorly framed questions.
According to them, names of noted sociologists and scholars were misspelt throughout the paper, including "Putzer" instead of Ritzer, "Parsow" instead of Parsons, "Ghunye" instead of Ghurye, "A K Desai" instead of A R Desai, and "Nusbaut" instead of Nussbaum.
Separately, a candidate claimed that 67 of the 150 questions in the English paper were identical to those asked in the 2024 examination, with even the sequence of answer options reportedly remaining unchanged.
The claim has raised concerns over the quality of the question paper and the integrity of the examination.
The NTA has not responded to the allegations.
The UGC-NET is conducted to determine eligibility for the post of Assistant Professor and admission to PhD programmes. It comprises Paper I, which tests teaching aptitude, reasoning ability and general awareness, and Paper II, which contains 100 subject-specific multiple-choice questions.
(With inputs from PTI)
