In a candid podcast, former Education Secretary Anil Swarup blames repeated NEET paper leaks on systemic indifference, weak NTA leadership and a powerful education mafia he calls worse than the coal mafia. He criticises Dharmendra Pradhan’s impulsive style, warns that mere resignations won’t fix exams, and urges deep reforms in paper-setting, centre selection and teacher training to protect India’s future.
IN A PODCAST hosted by Richa Jain Kallra, founder and host of WONE Social, author and former Coal Secretary of India Anil Swarup was featured. In the show One-on-One with Richa, they discussed various issues involving politics and education. The retired IAS officer shared his experience while working as Secretary of School Education and Literacy and the Coal Secretary.
Swarup also said that the Prime Minister has changed. When host Richa asked him what he would like to say to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “I would like to see the Prime Minister that I saw in the first two years, what an amazing person, leader.” He said that the Prime Minister he saw in 2014–16 is no longer the same. Swarup also explained the education system and the education mafia and what reforms need to be made.
During the podcast, the host asked the retired IAS about the repeated NEET paper leaks. He said that the paper leak matter is not that difficult; you just have to look at the system and how it is working. He questioned why no action was taken when the paper leak happened for the first time, despite the repeated leaks. “Why don't we reform that system? Why didn't we reform it earlier? It happened in 2025. Now I don't know what they are doing? But when it happened in 2024, I told them this will happen again,” he said.
He further explained that in the issue of the paper leak, the problem is not simply black and white. There are vested interests, indifference and inefficiency, which together contributed to this failure of the system. Then he said, “All of these things come together, and then the people in the system think, ‘It’s going on, so let it go. Why should I get involved?’”
Swarup then questioned the leadership of the system. He said, “Ultimately, the reputation of any organization depends on its credibility, as credibility is the most important factor. Who's heading it?” Then he pointed out that no one even discussed who the chairman of NTA is and what he is doing. He said, “This man was an MP. He became Chairman of UPSC. The short-lived UPSC failures occurred during that time.”
Swarup added UPSC has always been above board, but during the time Pradeep Joshi became the chairman, there were some problems with it. He said Joshi then resigned from there and became the chairman of NTA. The paper leak happened in 2024, nothing happened, and it was repeated in 2026, but there were no discussions. He said that changing the ministers is not the answer to these problems. “It is important to understand who is heading this organization.”
Swarup was further asked about former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, to which he said, “I haven't worked with Dharmendra Pradhan, but I do interact with him as a school secretary. He was a bit impulsive, so that was a problem.” He said that when Pradhan became Education Minister, questions started to come to his mind because the education ministers that he had seen earlier used to focus on depth and detail while Pradhan was impulsive.
Swarup explained that during his time, there was also some crisis in CBSE, and they handled the crisis effectively. He said there was pressure at that time also to remove the CBSE chairman, but they did not. After looking at the findings, they came to the conclusion that the chairman was not at fault, and the same should have been done in this case. They should have done the inquiry and reached a conclusion before changing the chairman. He said that a quick finding can be made and that it is not a lengthy process; authorities just have to conduct an inquiry.
“Just look at the process and you'll immediately see where the error occurred,” Swarup said. He then further explained that even after the findings, if the mistake is that of the officer, then removing him will not change anything. “See, if it is the fault of you officers then just removing him will not work, action should be taken against him,” he said. He said that changing the chairman of any organization will demoralise the entire institution. Instead, authorities should suspend him or take action against him. He said, “I firmly believe that if the officer is at fault, then reprimand him. But if he's not at fault, protect him to the end, so that morale remains high.”
The host then asked Swarup about his views on the education mafia and why no actions were taken against it. Swarup explained that he has worked in the coal ministry and education ministry and, according to him, the education mafia is worse than the coal mafia. He said, “The coal mafia is overground, while mining is underground. We can see that this mafia is the one causing trouble. So you established an inquiry, and analysed that the coal mafia exists because of a shortage of coal.” He said authorities can go to the root cause and find the solution.
He continued that the education mafia is different and complex. He said, “The education mafia is underground and they are blue collar and white collar mafia.” Swarup further claimed that there are cheating mafias, the publishing mafia, and the most serious and complex one is the B.Ed. and D.El.Ed. colleges. He said, “There were 16,000 B.Ed. and D.El.Ed. colleges in this country at that time. And among them there were 4,000 of them who were just there in name, they would sit in a room and give you a degree. And they were so politically well connected that you can't do anything against them.”
After questioning himself many times and wondering why nothing was happening even when the problems are clearly visible, he said that he then came to a conclusion that this was happening because of the interests of ministers. “They (ministers) are interested in today, at the most tomorrow, after 5 years and after 10 years, they are not interested,” Swarup said. He added that if we are trying to improve the education system, the impact will be observed after 5 to 10 years.
He said, “It’s shocking we are destroying our future.” If we look at NEET, he said, we can see that after the paper leak of 2024, “I had it written that it will happen again.” He said there is a need to first establish a proper system and then consistently follow it. Education is a multidimensional concept; hence, it is more complex than coal. He further said that the vested interests of leaders are obviously there and are present in everything. The problem with education and why it is not improving is because it lacks the necessary emphasis.
Swarup said, for example, “As Coal Secretary I used to meet with the Prime Minister almost every month. But as Education Secretary I’ve only met him once and that too was to explain health insurance to him.”
As a former secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Anil Swarup suggested that NEET needs to review the entire process of examination, from paper setting to exam timing. He said CBSE follows a similar approach, and NEET should also strengthen every step of the process to prevent paper leaks. He then started explaining each step in the examination process and how these steps can be improved to prevent paper leaks.
The first step, he said, is paper setting. Swarup said, “When it comes to the paper-setting process, I believe you should prepare seven or 10 papers and not decide in advance which paper will be released.” He added that these 10 papers can cover the entire course, and once all 10 papers are prepared, they should be digitally locked and sent to the examination centres. On the day of the examination, one paper should be selected just before the exam begins and then given to the students. He said “I don't understand how the paper can be leaked when I don't even know which paper is coming.”
The second problem, according to him, is the examination centres. He said that this same problem is linked to the cheating mafia. Swarup added that people would pressure him to get their particular institution approved as an examination centre. According to him these kinds of problems never appeared in CBSE or UPSC, and the reason is that their centre-selection process is more controlled.
The third problem, Swarup notes, is that authorities should know what can be outsourced and what should not. He said that sensitive tasks cannot be outsourced, “The NTA has outsourced it. It’s a very sensitive process, so why has it been outsourced? It should be kept internal. This does not happen in CBSE because these processes are handled internally. The same is true for UPSC.” He added that the internal process requires hard work, so authorities need to put in that effort.
According to him, to stop paper leaks, authorities first need to figure out the reasons. “We need to step by step identify where the leak is and create a system to plug it. I said the same thing when the leak occurred in 2024. That NTA has taken people from CBSE only, why does that system not follow CBSE.”
Swarup said, “Teachers are the pivot of school education.” According to him, the arrangements of teachers need to be improved and he said that this is possible. He said the first thing is that we need to improve teacher training by improving B.Ed. and D.El.Ed. colleges. He said, “I am happy that the new education system is trying to improve these.” He said that teacher training is a serious issue.
The second, Swarup adds, is the selection process and how teachers are selected. He said, “First, he is not trained, then if he gets selected by giving money or through recommendation, it becomes a problem.” In his experience, after a person becomes a teacher, they starts to deal with transfer postings. He said, “I suggested this and I still say it today. Why do you make teachers transferable?”He believes that the authorities should select one teacher for a village instead of transferring them again and again.
“Recruitment of a teacher should be for a school,” Swarup said. He further added that this transfer problem creates many problems and gave an example of UP. He said the process in UP was scandalous during his time and that the situation was so bad that teachers in urban schools were surplus, while in rural areas there were not enough teachers.
According to Swarup, there are problems whose solutions cannot be found, but when it comes to education, it can be improved; we just need to focus on it. He said, “If we waste our time in changing history then how will we improve today?” The retired IAS officer notes that it has become an obsession to change history and textbooks instead of focusing on the present.
Suggested Reading:
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube and WhatsApp
Download our app on Play Store