Congress leader Rahul Gandhi upped his criticism of the Modi government on Friday over the CBSE exam evaluation controversy, citing media reports that the education board had “lowered the technical bar” in a tender until Coempt Eduteck Private Limited, the company at the centre of the controversy, could qualify.
In a post on X, Rahul said he had been demanding an independent judicial probe from day one into the CBSE's on-screen marking and the award of the contract to COEMPT as the youth of the country deserved to know the truth.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also referred to PM Modi’s silence on the CBSE debacle and his inaction against Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, claiming the prime minister cared more about the survival of his government than the future of lakhs of students.
Rahul shared media reports and called upon people to read them.
"CBSE called for OSM tenders thrice. Zero bids the first time. No qualified bidder the second time. And finally, the technical bar was lowered until COEMPT could clear it. Scanning resolution cut. Robotic scanner requirement dropped. CMMI certification lowered from Level 5 to Level 3. Penalties for errors in answer sheets removed,” Rahul said.
He also highlighted how “India’s biggest IT services company” Tata Consultancy Services qualified in the third round, but “COEMPT — a company with a spectacular track record of failure — won.”
“And what are CBSE students complaining about today? Badly scanned answer sheets. Missing pages. A broken evaluation portal," he said.
Rahul alleged that the futures of 18.5 lakh students had been handed to a company that only became eligible after the rules were “bent” in its favour, and reiterated his demand for an independent judicial probe into the entire matter, including all contracts awarded to COEMPT.
He pointed out that teachers had warned the CBSE that the OSM system needed at least a year or two of preparation before nationwide implementation, but it was still rushed through.
“So I ask again — who wanted COEMPT to win? Who lowered the bar, step by step, until this company could clear it?” Rahul asked, adding that the CBSE and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan repeatedly insisting that “due process was followed” did not answer whether the contract was awarded to the best-qualified company.
Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday had rebutted the Congress leader’s claims, accusing him of suffering from “chronic political amnesia” and choosing “propaganda over facts, theatrics over truth”.
“The same COEMPT EDUTECK PVT. LTD. that Rahul Gandhi is today calling ‘controversial’ was repeatedly awarded projects by institutions functioning under Congress Governments in Telangana and Karnataka,” the BJP leader claimed, asking Rahul whether he would ask the chief ministers of those states to resign.
Meanwhile, fact-checker Mohammed Zubair posted on X a series of videos purportedly showing principals of several CBSE schools praising the OSM system in similar language. Alleging a coordinated campaign, Zubair claimed the CBSE was “sending scripts to school principals to defend the On Screen Marking system.”
He also alleged that students from Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh were asked to read out prepared scripts defending the system.
Former MP and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi also backed Zubair’s claims, sharing a screenshot of a social media post by JNV Dwarka that appeared to contain instructions for drafting promotional posts on the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking System (OSM).
The screenshot instructed users to “write a professional Facebook post” about the implementation and awareness of the CBSE OSM system for Classes 10 and 12, while specifically asking them to highlight the “benefits of digital evaluation”, mention “transparency, speed, and accuracy”, appreciate teachers and evaluators, and encourage academic excellence.
The Telegraph Online hasn’t been able to verify the origin of the post.
“Were the schools threatened that their accreditation would be taken away if they didn’t make the reels in praise of OSM? What kind of behaviour is this, Pradhan ji?” Chatturvedi said.
Linking the controversy to broader concerns over examination integrity, Rahul also shared a video of his earlier interaction with NEET aspirants, saying the meeting reflected growing distrust among students towards the government’s handling of exams.
According to Rahul, students told him that question papers were being openly sold through WhatsApp and Telegram networks and that aspirants themselves understood how the “rotten system” functioned better than the authorities meant to regulate it.
He argued that “patchwork fixes” would no longer work and called for a complete overhaul of the examination system in consultation with students, teachers and experts.
Rahul also flagged the government over the deployment of security personnel to protect examination papers, calling it a sign of deep-rooted institutional failure.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also slammed the Centre and cited media reports to allege that the CBSE repeatedly diluted technical requirements in the Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the on-screen marking system before awarding the contract.
He also raised concerns about whether adequate background checks had been carried out on COEMPT, formerly known as Globarena, and whether there was any external pressure to ensure the company secured the contract.
Demanding greater transparency, Ramesh asked the CBSE to release all documents related to the vendor selection process, changes made to the RFP conditions, and discussions held before the examinations.