Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday has come down heavily on leader of opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi after the latter alleged tampering in CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system used to assess Class 12 board exam papers. He said the Congress MP was “frustrated” to be levelling such allegations.
Rahul Gandhi claimed that the CBSE failed to answer questions raised over alleged irregularities in the evaluation process.
Rahul had launched a scathing attack on Pradhan, asking PM Narendra Modi to seek his resignation after the NEET-UG paper leak, followed by the CBSE controversy.
“There has been massive tampering in the CBSE exam results, leaving millions of children across the country and their parents in shock,” Gandhi wrote. He alleged that the company COEMPT, which was awarded the contract related to the digital evaluation process, had earlier operated under the name Globarena and was involved in controversies in Telangana in 2019. “Name changed, but the intent is the same, the nature is the same,” Gandhi said.
Also Read | Blow-by-blow account of Rahul Gandhi and CBSE's faceoff over ‘massive tampering' claim
{{/usCountry}}Also Read | Blow-by-blow account of Rahul Gandhi and CBSE's faceoff over ‘massive tampering' claim
{{/usCountry}}Responding to Gandhi’s remarks, CBSE issued a statement denying any wrongdoing in the award of the contract. “CBSE rejects the allegations regarding the award of the contract to Coempt Edutech. They are erroneous, misleading and not based on facts,” the board said.
Pradhan said Rahul was frustrated after suffering continuous electoral defeats and keeps raising issues that have no basis.
“Continuous election defeats have left Rahul Gandhi frustrated. He opposed the SIR, EVMs and even Digital India, distancing himself from India’s scientific progress... Right now, our priority is the students. We must ensure that they do not go through any mental stress,” said Pradhan while speaking to reporters on Thursday.
Also Read | From being called 'Pakistani' to CBSE's apology: Vedant Shrivastava case amid OSM row
What is the CBSE OSM row?
Ever since CBSE declared the Class 12 examination results, students have raised concerns about the OSM-based evaluation system used to assess answer sheets. CBSE used its new OSM system for the digital evaluation of Class 12 answer sheets this year.
The issue escalated when a Delhi student, Vedant Shrivastava, requested scanned copies of his answer sheets on May 19 after receiving what he described as “unexpectedly low marks” in Physics.
After receiving the scanned copies on May 23, he realised that the Physics answer sheet linked to his roll number did not belong to him.
He pointed out the issue in a post on X and uploaded side-by-side screenshots from his English and Computer Science papers to show that the handwriting in the Physics script was different. CBSE admitted the error and provided him with his correct answer sheet, but not before the student was trolled online and even called a “Pakistani” for merely raising the issue.