Conspiracy To Spread Anarchy Under The Garb Of Students – Prof. Sanjay Sinha

What has unfolded across the country and the state regarding the NEET exam over the past few days raises several critical questions. First, has an issue related to students' education and examinations turned into a tool for political self-interest and power struggles? A related question naturally arises: Why do political parties want to steer this movement toward chaos? Is this truly still a fight for the students, or is the opposition, devoid of real issues, trying to leverage it to build political ground? These questions are deeply unsettling. There is no doubt that the NEET paper leak is a criminal act and a matter of serious concern. However, when a sensitive issue transforms into a political stage, the narrative takes a very different turn.

Political protests on the streets of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh confirm that certain parties, particularly the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress, are attempting to use the students' grievances as a mask to regain their lost support base. A race for leadership of this movement has erupted among opposition parties. This is evident from the fact that after a protest was organised under the leadership of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, the state Congress unit staged a parallel demonstration. Political parties rushed to assert their control over a representative student movement, showing little concern that this frantic effort exposes their true priority: political gain over the welfare of students. Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh publicly questioning the Congress protest further proves that internal friction and rivalry have already begun within the opposition camp.

Another aspect of this episode cannot be ignored. In several videos that emerged during the protests, many students and parents stated that while they joined the protest against the NEET paper leak, the politicians present at the venue redirected the conversation toward unrelated topics. When voices emerge from within a student movement pointing out that discussions are straying from the core issue, it should serve as a wake-up call for the protesting students themselves. If a movement launched to reform the education system and preserve the integrity of examinations gets entangled in disparate political slogans and irrelevant controversies, the greatest harm will be suffered by the very students in whose name it was created.

The security concerns arising around the Parliament complex are also a matter of gravity. While the right to protest is fundamental to any democracy, when a crowd creates a situation that approaches the security perimeter of a constitutional institution, it poses a heavy responsibility on both the administration and the organisers. In such situations, responsible political leadership is expected to exercise restraint over the crowd rather than incite it further. However, SP and Congress leaders appeared to be encouraging chaos. If the parties supporting the movement continued to push the march despite the foreseeable security risks, it is entirely reasonable to ask whether political gain ranks higher for them than the safety of young citizens.

Now, coming to the core issue, paper leaks and flaws in the examination system are undeniably real and serious problems. However, this is not a new phenomenon. Over the past years, question paper leaks have occurred across various states, regardless of which party was in power. Remarkably, the very political parties under whose governance recruitment exams were repeatedly mired in controversy are now attempting to position themselves as the ultimate guardians of morality. During the SP government in Uttar Pradesh, numerous controversies surfaced regarding recruitment for the police force, teachers, the Subordinate Services Selection Commission, and other competitive examinations. Questions were raised over the appointment of individuals from specific castes to head selection boards, and cases of nepotism and bribery were rampant, allegations from which the SP continues to evade accountability to this day.

Similarly, questions were raised over teacher appointments and other exams in Bihar. The same pattern unfolded in Rajasthan under the Congress government, while the teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal drew national attention. Given these precedents, the public has every right to ask the opposition parties infiltrating the student movement why they failed to prevent such incidents when they were in power. If paper leaks are a systemic issue affecting various states across different administrations, their solution must also be sought by rising above partisan politics.

In UP, where pre-2017 governments had handed over competitive examinations to organised mafia and restricted appointments to nepotism, the Yogi government attempted to address these irregularities through the Uttar Pradesh Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, which laid down stringent legal provisions. These include fines up to ₹1 crore and life imprisonment. Securing the future of students, restoring the credibility of the examination system, and ensuring transparency in recruitment processes are shared responsibilities, not of a single party, but of both the ruling government and the opposition. When a government mobilises investigative agencies, acts against culprits, and proposes reforms for a new examination framework, opposing merely for the sake of opposition, rather than acknowledging these steps, only creates obstacles in solving the problem. The public expects all political parties to collaborate toward a solution when a grave issue arises, rather than viewing it through the lens of electoral advantage.

The paper leak episode involves the country's education system and the future of millions of young people. Transforming it into a battle for political credit does a great injustice to the students. What is required is to make the examination system more transparent, secure, and accountable through a shared commitment from all political parties. As long as this core objective remains drowned out by the noise of political rhetoric, students will neither receive justice nor will any lasting systemic reform be possible. The SP and Congress must introspect on whether they are genuinely concerned for the future of students or if they have merely taken to the streets in search of an opportunistic moment.

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