'Look What Your Testing Agency Did': Rahul Gandhi Jabs PM On UGC-NET Retests

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has launched a new round of attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Testing Agency (NTA) following the announcement that the UGC-NET for three subjects would be re-conducted due to faulty question papers.

The NTA, which had been firefighting the fallout of the NEET paper leak protests, yesterday said the UGC-NET for English, Commerce and Sociology have been cancelled and the exams would be held fresh.

The protest against the NEET paper leak had cost Dharmendra Pradhan his Union Education Minister's post.

Rahul Gandhi, drawing the prime minister's attention to the matter, said in a post on X, "Modi ji, look at what your NTA has just done."

The Congress MP criticised the testing agency for forcing students to bear the brunt of its administrative failures. "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.

The NTA announced the re-examination nearly two months after the tests were held. The NTA said it took the decision after a special committee looked into complaints about faulty question papers.

Rahul Gandhi said the current state of academics in the country was "deeply flawed".

"I said this in Kota, in Dehradun, in Prayagraj, and I will keep saying it - this is no longer an education system. It is an extraction machine. It takes your money, your years, your mental health, and your confidence and returns nothing. Not even a job," Rahul Gandhi said.

He asked whether the question papers were already compromised well before the tests were held. "The NTA still won't answer the real question - were these papers leaked before the exam? Just like every other compromised paper, I am absolutely sure there will be no accountability," he said.

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

The Congress leader said Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation was the first step, not the last, in fixing the system. "The NTA's leadership must be held accountable too."

The NTA announced that English and Commerce candidates will take the retest on September 9, while the Sociology paper is scheduled for September 10.

The NTA said no additional fee will be charged for the September re-examinations. It also confirmed that results for the other 84 subjects will be declared as scheduled and that the overall allocation of seats will not be reduced.