Rahul Gandhi said aspirants who had already spent months preparing, paid examination fees and travelled to centres would now have to repeat the process in September.
BY PC Bureau
NEW DELHI/ August 17, 2026: Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched a fresh attack on the National Testing Agency (NTA) over its decision to scrap and re-conduct the UGC-NET June 2026 examinations in English, Commerce and Sociology, accusing the testing body of making thousands of students bear the cost of errors they did not commit.
Gandhi said candidates who had spent months preparing for the national-level examination would now have to go through the entire process again, including registration, payment of examination fees, travelling to centres and appearing for another test in September.
Taking aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NTA in a post on X, Gandhi said the three papers were being cancelled almost two months after the original examination.
“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.
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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
Gandhi also questioned the circumstances that led to the cancellation and asked whether the NTA had established if the question papers were leaked before the examination. He demanded accountability from the agency’s senior leadership, arguing that repeated problems with competitive examinations were disrupting students’ academic and professional plans.
He said the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should not mark the end of accountability and called for action against those responsible within the NTA.
“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,” Gandhi said.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also questioned the timing of the NTA’s decision, asking why it took nearly two months for flaws in the question papers to be identified.
Ramesh said students should not be made to suffer because of mistakes committed by the examination authority and warned that the delay could have consequences for candidates seeking admission during the current academic session.
“Why should the country’s students bear the punishment for NTA’s mistakes?” Ramesh asked.
He also questioned how errors of such a nature could have survived the various stages of question-paper preparation, review and approval for a national-level examination.
Why were the UGC-NET papers cancelled?
The Congress leaders’ criticism came after the NTA ordered a fresh examination for candidates who appeared for the UGC-NET June 2026 papers in English, Commerce and Sociology.
The decision followed a review by an expert committee, which identified several shortcomings in the question papers. These reportedly included factual errors, typographical mistakes, translation problems, poorly framed questions and repeated questions.
The committee also flagged grammatical and numerical inaccuracies, ambiguous answer choices and the use of non-standard terminology for established concepts. In some instances, questions or answer options were found to have been repeated from earlier examination papers.
The UGC-NET June session was conducted in computer-based mode from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects.
The examination is conducted to determine eligibility for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Assistant Professor positions and is also used as an eligibility criterion for PhD admissions.
The decision to hold a re-examination means affected candidates will have to appear for the concerned papers again despite having already taken the test. The move has triggered concerns among aspirants over additional expenses, travel requirements and the possibility of delays in admissions and academic schedules.
The latest controversy adds to the continuing political scrutiny of the NTA, which has faced repeated criticism over the conduct and management of major competitive examinations.
The Congress has used the re-examination decision to renew its demand for greater accountability within the agency, arguing that students should not be made to bear the consequences of administrative and procedural failures in the examination system.
