Congress slams Centre over CUET delay, alleges ‘damage to education system’

The Congress attacked the Centre after technical glitches delayed CUET-UG exams, alleging mismanagement and corruption in the education system. The party linked the incident to earlier exam controversies, while the NTA said the issue was resolved and compensatory time was givenCUET-UG, Congress, Jairam Ramesh, Rahul Gandhi, Education system, NTA, Technical glitch, NEET, CBSE, Dharmendra Pradhan, Modi government, Exam delay, Student protests

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday alleged that the “Pradhan Mantri-Mantri Pradhan jugalbandi” is destroying the hopes and aspirations of lakhs of youth across the country by “messing up” the education system, encouraging the “infiltration of third-rate academics chosen by the RSS”, as well as enabling “large-scale corruption”.

The opposition party’s attack came after the CUET-UG 2026 for admissions into undergraduate degree programmes across India was delayed at some centres on Saturday due to a technical glitch.

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Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “After NEET and CBSE comes CUET. The Modi government is clearly in damage control mode. The Mantri Pradhan of course has been thoroughly discredited and exposed for his incompetence, arrogance, and callousness.”

“He is beyond saving in public estimation, and even the cheerleaders and drumbeaters are ready to cut him loose,” Ramesh said in a jab targeted at Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. “They are now focused on salvaging the image of the Pradhan Mantri – who has been absolutely silent and indifferent to the sufferings of millions of students, but is allegedly monitoring the situation closely,” Ramesh said.

Even now, the Modi government is only window-dressing and PR-managing, he alleged. “The use of the Indian armed forces to manage the logistics of the NEET-UG on June 21 is only an attempt to capitalise on their integrity and efficiency. It is more for optics than meaningful change,” the Congress general secretary in charge of communications claimed.

It is clear that the NEET-UG paper leak this month happened at the level of the paper-setters and translators, not at the stage of question paper transportation, Ramesh claimed.

“The focus should be on disrupting the NTA’s corrupt army of contractors and outsourced staff – but the Modi government is letting them go scot-free because it is an open secret that most of them are politically connected to the RSS network,” the Congress leader alleged.

“The Pradhan Mantri-Mantri Pradhan jugalbandi is destroying the hopes and aspirations of lakhs of youth across the country. The duo has thoroughly messed up the education system, encouraged the infiltration of third-rate academics chosen by the RSS, and enabled large-scale corruption,” Ramesh claimed.

“Their new damage-control is finding no takers, because the blame for creating this chaos is squarely on these two individuals,” he added.

The CUET issue has since been resolved and the examination is being conducted with full compensatory time so that no candidate is disadvantaged, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said.

“TCS has reported that a technical glitch at their end delayed the commencement of CUET UG 2026 at some centres on Saturday. The issue has since been resolved, and the exam is being conducted with full compensatory time so that no candidate is disadvantaged,” the NTA said on X.

“Afternoon session timing (revised): Reporting/entry from 2:30 pm; examination begins at 4:00 pm instead of 3:00 pm,” the NTA said. The Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate, or CUET-UG, is a standardised, national-level entrance exam conducted by the NTA for admissions into undergraduate degree programmes across central, state, and select private universities.

Earlier on Saturday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having “completely destroyed” the country’s education system and said the government has been unable to conduct even a single examination properly while making claims of being a “vishwaguru”.

On Friday, Gandhi said that Modi’s silence on the CBSE debacle and inaction against the education minister showed that he cared only about the survival of his government and not the future of lakhs of students.

The Congress leader had also shared a video of his earlier interaction with students who had taken the NEET and expressed their concerns over the exam system in the wake of the paper leak.