Neet Paper Leak: Kiren Rijiju Defended Dharmendra Pradhan, Says Govt Taking Steps To Fix Problems

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju defended Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday, calling demands for Pradhan’s resignation over the NEET leak and CBSE on-screen marking glitches “political,” and insisting that the Education Minister “is not running away” from the “mistake,” but has taken several measures “to fix the problem.”

Rijiju argued that responsibility lay mainly with the testing agencies, describing the Central Board of Secondary Education and the National Testing Agency as autonomous. “The CBSE is an autonomous body. It is a wing of the government, specifically created for a purpose, for the students, exams; the NTA is there…these are bodies that are not directly monitored by the Minister day-to-day,” he added.

NEET leak and CBSE on-screen marking glitches frame political row around Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Speaking at an event hosted by The Indian Express, Kiren Rijiju was asked about Opposition demands that Dharmendra Pradhan step down. The questions referenced both the NEET leak, which led to a re-test on June 21, and the CBSE on-screen marking glitches that left many students unsure about their exam results.

Rijiju said the government understood the distress of lakhs of students who had to sit again for NEET on June 21, along with those affected by errors in the CBSE on-screen evaluation system. However, Rijiju maintained that calls for the Education Minister’s resignation were driven by politics rather than evidence of direct wrongdoing.

NEET leak, CBSE on-screen marking glitches and role of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

When reminded that the Bharatiya Janata Party had earlier sought resignations of United Progressive Alliance Ministers over alleged irregularities, Rijiju drew a distinction. He said: “There is a difference. If a fraud is committed by the Minister or the Minister's staff, then the Minister is responsible…in an autonomous body, if some trouble happens in that autonomous body, then the body is answerable for that.”

Kireen Rijiju contrasted the present situation with what he described as frequent scandals during the UPA years. He said that when the BJP was in the Opposition 12 years ago, “every day or every month there was a scam, scandal, corruption charge against the Minister, Ministry and all.” That, Rijiju suggested, had justified stronger demands for ministerial exits.

Expanding this argument, Rijiju said: “In the last 12 years, there is no direct charge against any Minister or Minister's staff for any taking of bribes, commission, or wrongdoing, or manipulation of the system to benefit the Minister or Minister's staff and family. When there is a direct link with the Minister then definitely you have to ask for the resignation of the concerned minister. So, the difference that I want to make is that our Ministers don't run away from responsibility…(during) the Congress…like the then External Affairs Minister, the charge was against him directly. The first minister to resign during UPA-I was the External Affairs Minister…then subsequently, all those ministers who resigned…(there were) charges against the Minister or the Minister's office. This (the exam leak) is not a fraud committed by the Education Minister,” Rijiju said.

On the question of accountability within the current system, Rijiju pointed to administrative changes inside CBSE instead of ministerial exit. He said: “To build the confidence of the students and the system, the Chairman and the Secretary of the Board (CBSE) have been shifted; to demand the resignation of the Education Minister itself is political. The Education Minister has already said that as the head of the Ministry, he takes moral responsibility; the Education Minister is not running away from the error or mistake whoever has committed. He has rather taken it up as a challenge… to fix the problem.”

Rijiju stressed that Dharmendra Pradhan had publicly accepted “moral responsibility”, and added: “I am very clear that in such cases Ministers should not run away. Ministers should fix the problem. And that is what Dharmendra Pradhan ji is doing. He has taken numerous steps in the past month. I am confident that the steps taken and results — it will prevent future leaks and any deficiency that was there in the past will be fixed.” Pradhan's office was unavailable for comment.

Officials have also highlighted technical pressure on examination infrastructure, including a recent incident involving the CBSE portal. According to the Board, the system repelled a Denial of Service attack involving 3.8 million packets, and more than 70,000 grievance applications were filed. Rijiju repeated that such operational issues concerned autonomous exam bodies, though the Education Ministry remained answerable to students and would continue corrective action.