Abolish NEET, return authority to states: Chidambaram

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday called for the abolition of NEET-UG 2026 and suggested returning examination authority to state governments, stating that large-scale national entrance tests are highly vulnerable to question paper leaks.

His remarks come amid allegations of irregularities in NEET-UG 2026, including a suspected paper leak under investigation by the CBI.

The Centre has already cancelled the examination and announced a re-test, while the National Testing Agency has cited concerns over the integrity of the exam process.

In a post on X, Chidambaram wrote, "NEET-UG 2026 examination was held on May 3, 2026. The exam was conducted across over 5,432 centres. These centres were located across 551 cities within India and 14 cities abroad, catering to approximately 22.79 lakh registered students"

"It is commonsense that in the conduct of such an exam, over a large geographical area, the question paper has a very high probability of being leaked. Such leaks have happened in the past too. The answer is not attempt to 'plug' the leaks. The answer is to abolish NEET, return the authority to the States, and for NTA to ensure that the quality and standard of such State-level exams are of uniform high quality and standard," the post read. -- ANI