NEET row: Opposition targets BJP over ‘heroic’ reception to Dharmendra Pradhan

Opposition leaders criticised the BJP over the welcome accorded to former education minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Parliament after his resignation amid NEET-UG 2026 protests. Congress leaders questioned the gesture during debate on the Public Examination Amendment Bill, alleging failure of the system

New Delhi: Top Opposition leaders on Tuesday tore into the BJP, claiming that Dharmendra Pradhan was given a heroic welcome in the Parliament after he quit as Union education minister following the large-scale student protests over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.

Pradhan was welcomed by BJP MPs with slogans when he reached the Parliament House on Monday. Participating in a debate on the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill 2026 in Lok Sabha, Congress Leader Priyanka Gandhi said Pradhan was welcomed as a “superstar”.

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Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav also questioned the welcome accorded to Pradhan. Initiating the debate, Deputy Leader of Congress in the House, Gaurav Gogoi, said Pradhan was welcomed as if he had become after winning a war with Pakistan.

“Same Dharmendra Pradhan was the education minister then (2024), and now… When he came here, he was welcomed here as if he had come back after fighting with Pakistan. Do you have no shame?” Gogoi questioned.

Gogoi said two years back the bill was introduced in response to the 2024 NEET paper leak. “Then also the government had said it was a historic step, which will deter people from leaking paper. The 2026 leak proved that the law was a failure, and it will fail again,” he said.

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had on Monday slammed the reception that Pradhan received at the Parliament. In a post in Hindi on X, he had said, “Dharmendra Pradhan is — and will always remain — a symbol of corruption and India’s ruined education system. That very system claimed the lives of 26 children and forced lakhs of youths to take to the streets.”

Gandhi said Pradhan had to resign not out of moral conscience, but out of fear of the youth’s outrage. “And today, the BJP is garlanding that very same person in Parliament. This is not an honour; it is a celebration of the ruined futures of lakhs of children. Every student in the country is watching this, and will remember every face involved,” Gandhi said.

Pradhan resigned as Union education minister on Saturday following weeks of Cockroach Janta Party-led student nationwide protests over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2026 examination and the government’s handling of the issue. The movement, spearheaded by CJP, had consistently demanded Pradhan’s resignation along with sweeping reforms in the examination system.