The BJP’s questions regarding the “timing” of Rahul Gandhi’s meeting in coaching hub Kota, ahead of the NEET re-test on June 21, notwithstanding, more than 4,000 people – most of them students – turned up for the interaction held by senior Congress leader Wednesday evening on issues plaguing the education sector.Kota’s Dussehra Maidan was decked up like a concert-like venue, featuring DJs and rap performances, before Gandhi called some parents and students on the stage and spoke about suicides, the high cost of education and the difficulty in getting admissions. The backdrop had banners reading “Leak pe Leak, Sarkar Asleep”, while a big draw was singer Karma rapping about corruption and the exam system.There was a determined effort to keep out older visitors, with security personnel telling those trying to get in that the event was intended primarily for students. Many in the audience wore coaching institute T-shirts. The Congress had set a target of 10,000 for the event.Read | In all the 45 major paper leaks in 24 years, few top officials face actionShilpa Saini, a Class 11 student, said she had come as “paper leaks and corruption are putting the future of students at risk”.Mahek Yadav, 18, who scored 680 marks out of 720 in the now-cancelled NEET exam and was expecting admission in a good medical college, said she had come despite the short time left before the re-test. “Most of my friends did not come for this reason… but I came here because this concerns students’ welfare,” she said.Gandhi, who arrived around 8 pm, began his address by stressing that the gathering was not a political event. “This is not about the BJP, Congress or elections. This evening is about you and the challenges you are facing,” he said, a day after the BJP held protests and a press conference in Kota accusing the Congress leader of “politicising” the issue. Kota is the hub for NEET preparations. (Express photo by Parul Kulshrestha)Referring to his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi said young people he had met during it spoke about becoming IAS officers, doctors, engineers and lawyers, prompting him to question whether the education system was helping them achieve those aspirations. “India will succeed only if you succeed, and India has a duty to protect every single student,” he said.Story continues below this adRead | ‘Where do I go from here?’: The anxiety, anger and cost of a cancelled examGandhi went on to highlight the case of Akanksha, a NEET aspirant who died leaving a suicide note, which was displayed on screen. He had spoken to her paralysed father, Gandhi said.Students Somya Meena and Zeeshan Alam joined Gandhi on the stage. As Zeeshan talked about the Rs 2 lakh loan his parents took to support his studies, several students agreed, referring to the financial burden of preparing for entrance examinations and the high cost of private medical education.Gandhi shared figures to highlight this “burden”. Referring to NEET, he said around 22 lakh students appear for the examination annually and that families collectively spend nearly Rs 1.32 lakh crore on coaching, hostels, meals, books and examination fees. In comparison, he said, the Union government’s education budget was only about Rs 1.4 lakh crore, meaning that families spend almost as much on preparing for a single examination as the country spends on education in a year.Read | After paper leak row, why Centre has blocked Telegram in India until NEET re-examExpanding the argument to other major entrance examinations, including state public services, UPSC and JEE, Gandhi said families spend around Rs 3.5 lakh crore on preparations alone. The amount, he said, was comparable to the combined budgets for the Education, Health, Labour, Science and Women and Child Development Ministries.Story continues below this ad“This money is coming from your pockets, often through loans, sacrifice and hardship,” Gandhi told the audience, to cheers.Another presentation highlighted the low success rates in competitive examinations, stating that only one in 3,000 aspirants becomes an IAS officer, 30 in 3,000 secure admission to an IIT, and 180 in 3,000 become doctors. Describing the system as “stressful, unfair and brutal”, Gandhi said India’s examination structure had become “a rejection system” for a majority of aspirants.Parents invited on the stage spoke about the sacrifices they had made to support their children’s education. Several said they were willing to take loans despite these financial difficulties to fulfil their children’s dreams.Responding to them, Gandhi said, “You taking loans for your children to study is unfair because this is the responsibility of the country’s government.”