Rahul Gandhi's Muted Mic Charge Gets Rejoinder From Speaker

The Lok Sabha proceedings began on a stormy note today with the Opposition protesting in the House over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) row and demanding a quick discussion on it.

The House witnessed some unusual scenes as Rahul Gandhi claimed his microphone was turned off and asked the Speaker to switch it on, to which the latter gave a prompt rejoinder. The viral video, showing the Congress MP and Speaker going back and forth has been shared by the Congress on X.

When the House reassembled at noon, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, demanded a 'respectful' discussion on the NEET issue to show solidarity with the students.

Speaker Om Birla advised him to conform to the House norms and conventions and seek a discussion on the same after the Motion of Thanks to the President's address.

However, Mr Gandhi and the Opposition persisted with the demand and said: "We wanted to give a joint message to the students of India, on behalf of the Opposition as well as the government that we consider this an important issue. So, we thought that to respect students, we should have a NEET discussion today, a dedicated discussion."

Replying to Rahul Gandhi's charge, Om Birla said, "I don't have any button to switch off the microphone. There existed a similar set-up earlier. There is no mechanism to gag the microphone."

A video posted by Congress on X shows Mr Gandhi asking the Speaker to switch on his microphone. Sharing the video, Congress claimed that there was a conspiracy to silence the voice of the Opposition and students despite lakhs of students staring at a bleak future.

"While Narendra Modi remains silent on NEET, Rahul Gandhi is championing the cause of the youth in the House. However, on such a serious issue, a conspiracy is being done to suppress the voice of youth by switching off microphones in Parliament," Congress said in the post.

Notably, the NEET (UG) 2024 examinations were conducted on May 5 in around 570 cities, including 14 cities abroad. Over 23 lakh students and medical aspirants appeared for the examinations. However, it got marred by the paper leak controversy, thereby putting the future of many students in peril.

At least 67 candidates were accorded the highest score of 720 out of 720, creating outrage in academic circles. Soon, the issue turned political as the Union Ministry of Education initially made an outright dismissal of paper leak charges but then formed a high-level committee to probe the irregularities and also make recommendations for reforming the examination system.

The Central Bureau of Investigation also registered a criminal case on June 23, regarding NEET (UG) and UGC-NET exams, over alleged lapses in the conduct of examinations by the National Testing Agency.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)