Synopsis

The Congress has slammed the government over alleged errors in UGC-NET Sociology and English question papers, calling for Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. Concerns were raised about spelling and translation mistakes in Sociology and questions being lifted directly from past papers in English. The opposition highlighted the National Testing Agency's (NTA) poor track record in conducting examinations.

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New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday criticised the government over reported issues with UGC-NET Sociology and English question papers, saying Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's continuation in office is a "blot on our democracy" as well as reflection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "cynical political calculations".

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramsh said it required the might of the armed forces and the whole of the government at every level to conduct the re-NEET on June 21, 2026.

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It reflected the complete failure of the Modi government to conduct exams without such unprecedented mobilisation, Ramesh said on X.

When it comes to exams that are handled by the National Testing Agency (NTA) itself, the track record continues to be atrocious, he said.

"Questions in the UGC-NET English Exam were wholesale lifted from past papers without any changes and the UGC-NET Sociology question paper was chock-full of spelling, translation, and grammar errors," Ramesh said and shared a screenshot of media reports.

"The NTA is not fit for purpose. The Mantri Pradhan, on whose watch the NTA was supposed to be reformed and strengthened, has been exposed as incompetent and callous," Ramesh alleged.

"His continuation in office is a blot on our democracy and a reflection of the Pradhan Mantri's cynical political calculations," the Congress leader said.

According to candidates, Ritzer was "Putzer", social was "oval", Parsons was "Parsow", Ghurye was "Ghunye", A R Desai was "A K Desai", Nussbaum was "Nusbaut" in the National Eligibility Test (NET) Sociology question paper.

Candidates, who appeared for the UGC NET Sociology paper on June 30, alleged that the question paper was riddled with several spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and poorly worded questions.

There was no response from the NTA on the claims.

A candidate also claimed that 67 out of 150 questions in the English paper were identical to questions asked in the 2024 exam.

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Even the sequence of the answer options was reportedly unchanged, raising concerns over the quality of the question paper and the examination's integrity, the candidate said.

UGC-NET is conducted to determine the eligibility of candidates for the posts of Assistant Professor and admission to PhD programmes. The examination consists of two papers: Paper I, which includes 50 questions on teaching aptitude, reasoning ability, and general awareness, and Paper II, which contains 100 subject-related multiple-choice questions.