The Congress on Tuesday said the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 after allegations of a paper leak had exposed the “collapse” of the country’s examination system, with the Opposition accusing the BJP-led Centre of allowing organised paper leak rackets to flourish while lakhs of students paid the price.Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the dreams of more than 22 lakh students had been “crushed” because of corruption and negligence in the system.“Some fathers took loans, some mothers sold their jewellery, lakhs of children stayed awake through the night preparing for the exam. In return, they got paper leaks, government negligence and organised corruption in education,” Rahul said in a post on X.Calling the cancellation a “crime against the future of the youth”, Rahul said students were repeatedly being punished while “paper mafias” continued to escape action. He said lakhs of aspirants would once again face mental stress, financial burden and uncertainty because of the cancellation of the examination.“If destiny is decided not by hard work but by money and connections, then what meaning will education have?” Rahul asked, adding that the Prime Minister’s “amrit kaal” had become a “poison era” for the youth.Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the NEET controversy was only the latest example of the National Testing Agency’s repeated failures.Questioning the “purpose and credibility” of the NTA, Ramesh cited the 371st report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, which noted that five out of 14 national examinations conducted by the agency in 2024 saw paper leaks and irregularities.He also pointed to JEE Mains 2025, where 12 questions had to be withdrawn because of errors in the answer key, and alleged that delays in CUET examinations and results had thrown university academic calendars into chaos.According to Ramesh, the repeated uncertainty around CUET admissions had forced many students to move towards private universities with “more predictable and early admission cycles”.“The Modi government has destroyed decades-old admission systems and replaced them with a centralised body riddled with corruption and beyond Parliament’s accountability,” he alleged.The Congress Rajya Sabha MP also recalled Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan admitting in June 2024 that the NTA “needs a lot of improvement”, and questioned what action had been taken since then.“It is now clear that what is needed is not just improvement, but a complete restructuring of the NTA and its ecosystem,” he said.Joining the attack, Congress leader and party’s women wing president Alka Lamba alleged that paper leak cases had become routine under the present government.“Children work extremely hard for these exams, but the papers get leaked and the government sitting at the Centre takes it lightly,” she said.Lamba claimed examination papers had leaked 89 times in the last 10 years and alleged that “people in power” were protecting those involved. “They are playing with the future of students and this will not be tolerated,” she said.