How NTA Chief and BJP Man P.K. Joshi’s Stock Kept Rising, Despite His Failures
Kunal Purohit | 03 August 2026 | The Wire
Mumbai: When Pradeep Kumar Joshi’s name was recommended for the post of the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) chairperson, an internal note was circulated by the MP Special Branch of the police, meant for the secretary to the chief minister, vetting his name.
The Wire has reviewed a copy of the internal note, provided to Bhopal-based activist Ajay Dubey under the Right to Information Act. The note should have brought up any red flags.
It listed out his then-employment status and plainly stated a truth: Joshi, a Jabalpur-based professor, had close links with top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Murli Manohar Joshi – news reports have called him his kin – as well as former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
As if that would suffice.
It did. And days later, Joshi was sworn into the constitutional post of the MPPSC chairperson, in charge of conducting exams for all aspirants who want to enter into government service, a role he would later run into controversies for.
The same man, Joshi, now heads the National Testing Agency (NTA), the agency which has been in charge of conducting leak-ridden competitive exams like the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), whose leak in May sparked off massive protests and led to at least 12 aspirants taking their own lives.