NEET Fiasco: What's The Way Forward?

It's an elite exam and is in the eye of a massive storm. This week NEET hogged headlines for all the wrong reasons - from allegations of paper leaks to malpractices. It's just one exam and 24 lakhs appeared for it. There are over 60 toppers - a bunch of them from just one centre scoring 720 out of 720 marks, which was unimaginable to date. Hundreds scored 719 and 718 marks, which is impossible in the NEET marking scheme. The National Testing Agency has said that these scores were due to grace marks given to some students at some centres where there were glitches and students lost time. The Supreme Court ordered a retest for the 1,563 students who got the grace marks. However, the larger aspirant community wants the exam scrapped and is demanding a retest for all. The issue has also become political with the Opposition, especially the DMK, upping the ante and demanding that the NEET be scrapped totally. They are also threatening to raise the issue in the upcoming session of the Parliament. The Education Minister met a group of students and their parents and assured them. In an exclusive interview, Dharmendra Pradhan ruled out the scrapping of NEET and insisted that the exam was clean. The larger question is: IS NEET actually clean? Who is playing with the lives of lakhs of aspirants and what is the way forward?