ALAKH PANDEY OF PHYSICS WALLAH HAS TURNED INTO MESSIAH OF NEET 2024 STUDENTS OVERNIGHT
New Delhi: After the results for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, or NEET, 2024 were announced, the otherwise dormant YouTube channel of Alakh Pandey, founder of Physics Wallah, suddenly turned active. Pandey started uploading one video after another discussing the various issues pertaining to the results and providing updates on the legal battle in the Supreme Court, which he is pursuing on behalf of the medical aspirants.
Alakh Pandey, the owner of Physics Wallah, an Indian ed-tech company, has morphed into a sort of a messiah for desperate NEET-affected students today. After developing an application for students aiming to crack JEE-NEET,Pandey has now added another title to his bio: a leader of the students. From asking aspirants to share their issues and then amplifying those concerns through his videos, Pandey ticks most of the boxes for a student leader. He is addressing protesting students, calming anxious parents, explaining technical intricacies, constantly updating developments, and is slowly becoming the axis of the demand-for-justice movement against NEET.
“There are very few media people covering this issue; everyone is interested in who touches whose feet. Nobody wants to know how doctors clear the exam or what the issues are,” said Pandey, addressing hundreds of affected students and parents outside one of the coaching centres in Delhi-NCR, a video of which was uploaded on YouTube.
Parents from Gujarat and Haryana travelled to Delhi to express their grievances about the NEET 2024 results amid allegations of paper leak, granting grace marks to 1563 students, and an unusually high number (67) of students receiving the perfect score of 720. Pandey interacted with several parents.
“This student sent me the wrong video yesterday. I am not here to protest. I am being impartial here. The rank has increased by more than 40 percent in this result,” said Pandey while addressing the students and their parents.
“All the students have studied Physics from you, and everyone’s eyes are on you only. We want justice,” said the mother of an aspirant who scored 675 but still got 13,000 rank.
Pandey was speaking for the lakhs of students disappointed by the system and government. This video has garnered more than two million views.
“This man should be the Education Minister, yaar. The real one is doing nothing for us,” commented one user on the video.
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Fighting the legal battle
Pandey has become the main face of the vocal criticism of NEET UG.
“We need an explanation of the normalisation criteria of NEET results and at how many centres it was applied. Multiple theories have arisen due to the current situation. All the students demand to know the truth,” wrote Pandey immediately after the result, followed by a video. In the following video, Pandey shared an OMR sheet of an aspirant to show how the National Testing Agency (NTA) had given grace marks.
Soon after the discrepancies and allegations made headlines, Pandey started appearing on news channels. In the last week, he has appeared on NDTV, Republic Bharat, and several other channels. But he did not rely solely on the media to spread the issue; he enlisted his students’ help and prepared for the legal battle.
Three days after the results, Pandey decided to take the matter to court and challenge the NTA. He released one video saying, “We are going to the Supreme Court for our students.”
The fight is not limited to digital actions. He meets students and assures them that he will give a tough fight in court to save their future. The Supreme Court heard the matter on 13 June, where the central government told the court that a high-powered committee has decided to re-conduct the test for candidates who were given grace marks.
“NTA has accepted that the concept of grace marks should be removed. But our demands are not over. The number could be higher than 1,563. Paper leak? High cut-off? Our struggle on these matters will continue,” Pandey posted on X in Hindi.
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A hero and a saviour
Alakh Pandey claims that most students who prepare for NEET study at his coaching institute. He is famous as a Physics teacher, but also guides students about life and friendship. This is why students see him as their ‘hero.’
Eighteen-year-old Ashish Yadav never misses Pandey’s videos. He argues that Pandey is the only one raising the voice of NEET aspirants. Yadav remembers every word Pandey says in his videos, just like his syllabus.
“Our sir explained everything that went wrong in the NEET exams. He is talking to the students and asking them to help him fight,” said Yadav, and candidly disclosed how one of his friends shared his mark sheet to help Pandey strengthen his case.
“My friend who got 577 marks (out of 720) says he won’t be able to do anything with that score, but if Pandey sir can use his mark sheet to prove the grace marks theory, then he should,” said Yadav.
Pandey is representing 20,000 NEET aspirants who were affected by the NEET result. This year, the grade inflation in NEET is 4-5 times higher than last year.
“640-650 is a great score in NEET. Last year, with these marks, students would have gotten a rank of 10,000, but now they are getting 30,000-40,000 ranks,” said Pandey.
He invited an aspirant from the Sawai Madhopur centre, where a huge management problem occurred during the exam, causing students to lose time, on his YouTube channel.
“Hindi medium aspirants were given the English medium paper, and English medium aspirants were given the Hindi paper. When students raised their concerns, they were asked to keep quiet. Later, a madam came and said there was a problem with the distribution of question papers,” the aspirant told Pandey.
Through this video, Pandey tried to expose the mismanagement of the NTA and the problems behind the high rate of inflation in rank.
In this case, the teachers present at the centre took the exam later in the evening when the issue was resolved.
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No victory, future uncertain
On Tuesday, when the Supreme Court heard Pandey’s plea, the central government told the court that the NTA is ready to do away with the grace marks given to 1,563 students and offered to re-conduct the test on 23 June. For Pandey, though, this isn’t a victory.
“There is no victory; Don’t believe that justice has been done, everything has turned in our favour—absolutely not,” Pandey said in a video uploaded on YouTube after the hearing.
Now, the future is uncertain for lakhs of students, but Pandey is not losing hope and is not letting the students lose hope either. He is fighting for justice, and he believes he will achieve it.
Pandey started his YouTube channel in 2016 with Rs 30,000. Now, he has more than 12 million subscribers, and his net worth is around Rs 2,000 crore. ‘Physics Wallah’ has more than 19,000 employees and 20 offline centres. Most of his business comes from online teaching methods. Last year, his company earned Rs 350 crore, and he recently raised Rs 777 crore. Pandey’s Physics Wallah became India’s 101st Unicorn (a company with over $1 billion valuation). He is one of the richest teachers in India.
Although many people are leading the fight for NEET aspirants, Kota’s famous teacher Nitin Vijay, who runs a coaching institute in the NEET aspirants’ coaching hub, is also fighting on the same line. He has also filed a case in the Supreme Court and draws massive support.
“We can see that many people are fighting against the NTA’s irregularities, but Pandey sir is not just any other person; he is family. He not only teaches subjects related to NEET but also about life. Seeing him fight for us makes us believe that good people exist in the form of humans like Pandey sir,” said Ashish Yadav while showing the playlist of Pandey’s videos.
The NEET case hangs in balance even as the Supreme Court refuses to put a stay on post-result counselling. The students don’t know if their rank will change or not. But with every video, Pandey makes them believe that they are not alone.
“I am waiting for Pandey sir’s video for updates on the NEET matter. For me, he is the one who can bring justice to us,” said Yadav as he played the next video of Pandey.
(Edited by Prashant)
2024-06-15T11:35:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd