Bengaluru, June 19 -- Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge criticised the Centre's decision to temporarily ban Telegram ahead of the NEET-UG re- examination, calling it a "lazy and incompetent knee-jerk response". He alleged that the Centre was attempting to shift blame instead of addressing systemic issues within the National Testing Agency (NTA).

In a post on X, Kharge said that banning the messaging platform would unfairly impact students who rely on it for educational purposes.

"Banning Telegram is a lazy and incompetent knee-jerk response that punishes students instead of fixing the real problem. Lakhs of students use Telegram for study material, updates, peer learning and exam preparation. Why should they suffer because the NTA and t...