Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday slammed the National Testing Agency (NTA) after a Re-NEET aspirant from Nagpur was allegedly allotted an exam centre in Abu Dhabi, calling the situation a reflection of a “broken” examination system.
The NTA is “testing the patience of students and parents,” the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha remarked. NTA DG Abhishek Singh told Times Now that the issue had been resolved and a probe is underway in the matter.
Rahul Gandhi said the candidate had been preparing for the re-exam for a month and discovered only a day before the test that his centre was located abroad. Questioning how such an allocation was even possible, the Congress leader said no student should have faced issues reaching their exam centre.
“A child from Nagpur had been preparing for the NEET re-exam for a month. Just one day before yesterday’s exam, he downloaded his admit card. His center turned out to be-Abu Dhabi. No passport, no money in the family to send him abroad, and no time left now. He cried all night and is refusing to take the exam-what kind of stress is this, can you even imagine?” Rahul Gandhi posted on X (formerly Twitter).
“How did this even happen? Yesterday, no student should have had any complaint about not being able to reach their center. The NTA is actually just testing the patience of the country’s children and their parents. A system that can’t provide a center in a child’s own city but can send them abroad instead-it has no right to conduct exams,” he said.
“I said the same thing in Kota-this is no longer an education system. This is nothing but extortion of an entire generation’s money, time, and mental peace. Stop gambling with our children’s future. They deserve a sensitive, responsible, and accountable education system and exam authority-and we will ensure they get it,” he added.
What Happened And What NTA DG Told Times Now
A Re-NEET 2026 aspirant from Nagpur was mistakenly allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. With only one day left before the examination, the student and his family were deeply concerned and filed a complaint with the NTA for grievance redressal. He has now been assigned a correct centre, while NTA said that it is investigating the error.
Rahul Gandhi made the comments while responding to NTA’s post that said, “The grievance is being addressed and the candidate will be allocated a centre in Nagpur, after due verification, in the next few hours.”
Director General of the National Testing Agency, Abhishek Singh, that the issue had been resolved. He added that the agency is probing how the candidate was allotted a foreign centre.
“In this case, NTA is investigating how the candidate got Abu Dhabi as the centre… The investigation will take time, but we wanted the child to take the exam. So, we are currently more focused on that,” DG Singh told Times Now.