NTA Row: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched a scathing attack at the Centre after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced a re-examination for the UGC-NET June 2026 papers in English,
Commerce and Sociology, and accused the agency of making students “serve the sentence” for its mistakes.
Taking aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NTA, Rahul Gandhi said the three papers were being cancelled nearly two months after the examination. He said that thousands of candidates who had prepared for years would now have to fill forms, pay fees, travel to examination centres and sit for the test again in September.
“Modi ji, look at what your NTA has just done. Thousands of candidates who prepared for years, filled forms, paid the fees, travelled to distant centres, must now do it all again in September. NTA makes the mistake but the student serves the sentence,” he said in a post on X.
Modi ji, look at what your NTA has just done.
UGC-NET exams for Sociology, English and Commerce were held between 22 and 30 June. Nearly two months later, NTA has cancelled all three because it set faulty papers and repeated old questions.
Thousands of candidates who prepared… https://t.co/TUMhhMhjvL
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 17, 2026
He further alleged that the NTA had failed to answer questions over whether the papers were leaked before the examination and demanded accountability from the agency’s leadership.
Rahul Gandhi also said the cancellation was part of a larger problem with the examination system, alleging that students were losing time, money and opportunities because of repeated disruptions. He called for accountability beyond the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, saying the NTA’s leadership should also be held responsible.
“Just like every other arm of the Modi government, NTA never says it’s their fault. Just like every other compromised paper, I am absolutely sure there will be no accountability. Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation was the first step, not the last. NTA’s leadership must be held accountable too,” he said.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also echoed similar sentiments and questioned why it took nearly two months for the errors to be identified.
He asked why students should bear the consequences of mistakes made by the examination agency and raised concerns about candidates who could miss admissions to the current academic session because of the delay.
“Why should the country’s students bear the punishment for NTA’s mistakes?” Ramesh asked.
UGC NET जून 2026 की परीक्षा के करीब दो महीने बाद NTA ने खुद माना कि English, Commerce और Sociology के प्रश्नपत्रों में factual, typographical और translation errors थे। प्रमुख विद्वानों के नाम गलत लिखे गए, किताबों के शीर्षक बिगाड़ दिए गए, प्रश्नों की भाषा में त्रुटियां थीं,…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 17, 2026
He also questioned how such errors made it through the preparation and approval process of a national-level examination.
What’s The NTA Row?
The opposition leaders’ remarks came after the testing agency ordered fresh exams for the three subjects after an expert committee found multiple problems in the question papers, including factual and typographical errors, translation mistakes, issues with wording and repeated questions.
The UGC-NET June session was conducted in computer-based test mode from June 22 to June 30 across 87 subjects. The examination determines eligibility for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), Assistant Professor positions and PhD admissions.
The committee flagged grammatical and numerical errors, unclear answer options, non-standard terminology for established concepts and repetition of questions or answer options from previous examinations.
According to the NTA, the scale of the problems meant that the affected questions could not simply be removed during the answer-key process, leading to the decision to conduct fresh examinations.
The re-examinations for the three subjects are scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10.
