"Stop gambling, children deserve responsible education system": Rahul Gandhi after NEET candidate allotted centre in Abu Dhabi

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday criticised the Central Government and the country's education system after a NEET-UG 2026 re-examination candidate was allotted a centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday criticised the Central Government and the country's education system after a NEET-UG 2026 re-examination candidate was allotted a centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi claimed that after seeing his admit card, the student went through a lot of stress, asserting that he did not even carry a passport to travel internationally.

"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?" he said. Gandhi emphasised that no student appearing for the examination should complain of not being able to reach their respective centre.

"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," he said. Targeting the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Congress leader said, "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 alleged that the education system in the country has become an "extortion" of an entire generation's money and time. "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," he said.

"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," Rahul Gandhi further asserted. This comes after a NEET aspirant from Nagpur was allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, despite opting for Nagpur as his preferred test city.

The development comes just a day ahead of the medical entrance examination scheduled for June 21, leaving the candidate and his family in a state of uncertainty. Later, National Testing Agency (NTA) Director General Abhishek Singh clarified that the issue regarding a Nagpur-based student being allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi for the NEET UG 2026 re-exam has been resolved.

Speaking to ANI, NTA DG Abhishek Singh stated that the discrepancy has been rectified and the student has been assigned a centre in their home city. "The issue has been resolved, and the candidate has now been allotted a centre in Nagpur," Singh told ANI.

The student had earlier been assigned a centre at Saraswati Vidyalaya in Nagpur for the original NEET examination. However, after the exam was rescheduled following the paper leak controversy, he downloaded his new admit card only to discover that his examination centre had been shifted to the Abu Dhabi Indian School in the UAE. (ANI)