Govt Blocks Telegram Before NEET-UG Exam to ‘Curb Paper Leaks’; Adani Gets All Coal Power Purchase Contracts in BJP States; TMC Rebels Could Get Disqualified But Still Vote in Next Parliament Session
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Snapshot of the day
June 16, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
The Union government has temporarily blocked the Telegram app ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination scheduled on June 21 in a purported effort to curb paper leaks through the app amidst a nation-wide protest movement which has been demanding the resignation of the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued notifications under Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and will also issue a direction requiring Telegram to disable its message-editing feature in India till June 30.
The Internet Freedom Foundation has called the shutting down of Telegram “a band aid solution” and a “disproportionate answer to exam fraud.” Calling on the Modi government to publish the Meity order with reasons – as the order itself had not been published and it was National Testing Agency’s response that alerted journalists to the Telegram block – the IFF notes that the order is anti-student.
The other measures implemented by the Modi government to ensure a NEET exam without leaks have been garnering criticism. The defence ministry, for instance, has enlisted the Indian Air Force to transport the new question paper to 18 locations across the country. The NTA has reportedly placed an unknown number of paper-setters under “lockdown” until after the date of the test for which they are preparing questions.
On NEET re-test, Telegram assorted policy drama, 17-year-old Sarthak Sidhant – who previously exposed Central Board of Secondary Education’s online marking system – reportedly fact-checked IIT-K director Manindra Agrawal with a “meow-meow” message on the need to shutdown Telegram – more like shorthand for a wider pattern of crisis management by evasion.
Who is really in charge of the obscure Nationalist Citizens Party of India, with which the Trinamool Congress’s 20 rebels in the Lok Sabha have sought to merge themselves? We don’t know, and
