The government faced fresh political heat on Saturday after the Combined University Entrance Test (CUET-UG) 2026 was postponed across several centers in India. The National Testing Agency (NTA) later blamed a “technical glitch” and the test was carried out with some delay.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi chief Atishi launched a stinging attack on Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, seeing the CUET delay as another incident of mismanagement of examinations at the national level.
“First NEET, then CBSE, and now CUET,” she said in one of a series of X posts, referring to the NEET-UG paper leak, and controversies over the Class 12 marking scheme of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi made a similar argument, adding the Service Selection Commission (SSC) exams as another example of mismanagement and “dishonesty”.
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He challenged Vishvaguru’s “claims” and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “completely destroyed the entire education system”.
Gandhi said: “The generation whose future you are destroying will hold you accountable.”
AAP president Arvind Kejriwal shared one of Atishi’s posts with the caption: “The country needs an educated Prime Minister.” PM Modi has a master’s degree according to Delhi University.
Glitches and rows
The CUET flaw marks the second blow to NTA in particular in weeks. The high-stakes medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2026, which was conducted on May 3, has been canceled amid widespread allegations of paper leakage and structural irregularities.
The Ministry of Education has since ordered an investigation into the CBI program and has scheduled a re-test for over 22 lakh aspirants on June 21.
“Today, CUET was postponed due to a ‘technical issue’. Thousands of students were scheduled to take the exam across India today and after waiting for hours, such notices were put up outside all centres. Remarkable incompetence @dpradhanbjp!” Atishi wrote, sharing a picture of the NTA notice, and tagged Education Minister Pradhan.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj also reshared videos of the chaos outside exam centres, and said the delay could mean a “major violation”.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have repeatedly targeted Pradhan over these issues, demanding his resignation and urging Prime Minister Modi to “break his silence” on the repeated institutional lapses.
The government told the Supreme Court earlier this week that PM Modi was “personally supervising” the reinstatement of NEET conduct; Where Gandhi also dug.
However, Pradhan said he takes “full responsibility” for the glitches that occurred in CBSE and assured a smooth re-examination.
Meanwhile, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has also been mired in controversy following severe agitations during the recent SSC GD Constable 2026 examination. There was a miscalculation of seat numbers, widespread server crashes and a high-tech cheating racket busted by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in Greater Noida. This sparked student protests, eventually forcing the committee to cancel some of the affected shifts and reschedule exams.
The controversies have also fueled the emergence of an online satire movement called the Cockroach Janta Party.
NTA clarification
In response to public concern over CUET, NTA issued a clarification attributing the delay to its technical partner, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). This came along the lines of notices placed outside the centres.
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The morning session was delayed by more than two hours in several states. To accommodate the successive delays, NTA has revised the schedule for the afternoon shift.
The second session submission time has been moved to 2:30 pm, with the exam starting at 4 pm instead of the originally scheduled 3 pm.
The NTA specified that candidates from the morning shift were given their full stipulated duration and were only allowed to leave after completing their paperwork.
“NTA deeply regrets the inconvenience caused to students and parents,” the agency added, releasing a helpline number (91-11-40759000) and email address (cuet-ug@nta.ac.in) to candidates who need immediate assistance.
What is CUTE-UG?
Introduced in 2022, CUET-UG is a nationally standardized entrance examination designed to provide a uniform assessment platform for admission to undergraduate programs across central, state and selected private universities.
In line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, it assesses candidates on language skills, domain-specific subjects, and general competence, replacing a fragmented system of multiple university-specific tests to promote inclusivity. However, Saturday’s technical glitch has once again exacerbated concerns about the NTA’s ability to seamlessly implement large-scale, multi-city testing.
CUET is held across multiple dates. Due to the large number of applicants and the wide variety of subject pools, NTA conducts exams in multiple shifts and spans across several days. For example, the current year’s cycle started from May 11 and ends by May 31.
