BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan take responsibility for the alleged NEET-UG 2026 question paper leak and tender an unconditional apology to students.
Speaking at a protest organised by Youth Congress at Freedom Park in Bengaluru against alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, Siddaramaiah said states should be allowed to independently conduct medical entrance examinations through the CET system.
He alleged that despite the NEET paper leak controversy, neither the PM nor the Union Education Minister had accepted responsibility. “Dharmendra Pradhan has merely announced another date for the NEET examination and washed his hands of the issue. Both he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi must take responsibility,” the CM added.
Claiming that Karnataka and several other states earlier conducted CET examination transparently for medical admissions, the CM said the system was changed after Modi became the PM in 2014 and NEET was introduced in 2016. He alleged that question paper leaks had occurred five times in the last 10 years.
Students spend an entire year preparing for NEET and many families spend thousands of rupees on coaching centres, he said, adding that poor and rural students who cannot afford coaching are placed at a disadvantage.
The CM accused the BJP government of discrimination against poor, Dalit, backward class and minority students and said education, being a subject in the Concurrent List, should not be excessively centralised.
Referring to alleged recruitment exam paper leaks during previous BJP governments in Karnataka led by BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai, Siddaramaiah said repeated leaks had occurred both at the state and central levels under BJP rule.
He also alleged that students distressed by the NEET paper leak controversy had died by suicide and demanded compensation for their families. He urged the Centre to treat those responsible as “murderers” and punish them accordingly.
Siddaramaiah further demanded that Modi cut short his foreign tour and apologise unconditionally to NEET aspirants. He reiterated that the Centre should hand over the responsibility of conducting medical entrance examinations to individual states.