Congress general secretary and Chhattisgarh in-charge Sachin Pilot on Wednesday condemned what he described as a police lathi-charge on NSUI workers in Chhattisgarh who were protesting alleged irregularities in the NEET examination and the CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation system. In a post on X, he accused the BJP-led central government of inaction and demanded the dismissal of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Pilot wrote that activists of the National Students' Union of India had taken to the streets in Chhattisgarh against the alleged 'NEET pariksha leak' (NEET exam leak) and lapses in the OSM evaluation system. 'During this demonstration, the police administration used force and resorted to a lathi-charge, due to which several workers have sustained serious injuries,' he said, charging that the action was an attempt to silence dissent.

Context

The post tags Chhattisgarh Congress leaders Vinod Jakhar, Deepak Baij and Charan Das Mahant alongside the state and national party handles, signalling a coordinated party line. Chhattisgarh, where the BJP returned to power in the 2023 assembly election, has become a frequent site of Congress-led student mobilisation, with NSUI workers staging campus and street demonstrations on examination-related grievances.

Pilot, a former Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, was appointed Congress general secretary in charge of Chhattisgarh as part of the party's organisational rejig, and has since been steering the state unit's opposition to the Vishnu Deo Sai government on youth and education issues.

Policy backdrop

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was rolled out progressively from 2013 and made the sole gateway to undergraduate medical admissions by 2019, replacing a patchwork of state-level entrance exams. The test, administered by the National Testing Agency, has been at the centre of recurring controversy since the 2024 cycle, when allegations of paper leaks and grace-mark anomalies triggered nationwide protests and court interventions.

The CBSE's On-Screen Marking system, introduced in phases from the mid-2010s, digitised the evaluation of board answer scripts with the stated aim of reducing manual errors. Pilot's reference to 'gadbadiyan' (irregularities) in the OSM rollout reflects a broader Congress critique that successive reforms in centralised testing and evaluation have been implemented without adequate safeguards.

Stakeholders and impact

'By toying with the future of lakhs of students, the BJP government has so far taken no concrete action against the irregularities in the examination,' Pilot wrote, adding that the central government had limited itself to 'formal administrative action' and was trying to evade accountability. He asked why Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had not been sacked and accused the Prime Minister of maintaining silence on the issue.

The remarks place medical aspirants, school-leaving students and student activists at the centre of the political contest. For the Congress, the NEET and OSM grievances offer a vehicle to consolidate youth support in a BJP-ruled state, while the ruling party has consistently defended the integrity of the national testing architecture and pointed to administrative and legal follow-ups already under way.

What's next

The Chhattisgarh unit is likely to escalate street protests and seek meetings with district administrations over the alleged use of force, while the national leadership is expected to raise NEET and CBSE evaluation issues in Parliament. Any fresh communication from the National Testing Agency or the Education Ministry on examination reforms, and the response of state authorities to the injury claims, will shape the next phase of the agitation and test the Congress's ability to convert exam-related anger into sustained political traction among first-time voters.