Rahul Gandhi slams CBSE over OSM portal glitch:Says ’18-year-old Sarthak turned out to be faster than CBSE’

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi shared a video of his meeting with CBSE student Sarthak Siddhant on his X account on Sunday. The two met on June 2 in Delhi. 18-year-old Sarthak Siddhant has exposed irregularities in the on-screen marking (OSM) system for CBSE Class 12 and the tender process related to COEMPT, the company that handles OSM. Rahul said that the country’s 18-year-old youth proved faster than the CBI, and this victory for the youth is truly a defeat for the government. Sarthak, a resident of Ranchi, Jharkhand, also took the 12th-grade exams this year. After receiving low marks, he requested his scanned answer sheets for re-evaluation. Sarthak had shared the issues of incorrect mark deductions and other problems on social media. Sarthak has also given a 500-page presentation before the Parliament’s Standing Committee for reforms in CBSE. Video of Rahul and Sarthak’s conversation Now read the conversation between Rahul and Sarthak ‘Is this good or bad? What do you think about it?’, questions Rahul Sarthak: I did what a citizen should do regarding anything. This is our country; everyone should have enough civic sense to read things and work towards making the system transparent. No matter how many irregularities there are, one should work for improvement. ‘What do you think about what happened?’, questions Rahul Gandhi Sarthak: Nisarg Adhikari is an ethical hacker. He shared a glitch in the OSM portal with me on a group chat. When I checked, I found that everything in it was done by Onmark. Onmark is an EdTech solution company for OSM evaluation. I investigated further about it. Nisarg also sent me details of other universities that used Onmark. Glitches were found in them too. After this, I wondered why CBSE was using such a company with so many associated glitches. ‘If an 18-year-old boy can find a loophole, why can’t this big system?’, questions Rahul Gandhi Sarthak: I think these people are not doing their job responsibly. The tender was changed 3 times, rules were changed, and after this, the contract was given to COEMPT Edutech. Even after the glitches came to light, no investigation was done, and rules were repeatedly changed. It’s possible that they (CBSE) prefer the company more, or they don’t care about the future of us 1.7 million students. June 1: Rahul Gandhi spoke to CBSE students Rahul Gandhi had met with CBSE 12th-grade students. He posted a 1.30-minute video of the conversation. The caption read: The courageous youth who asked simple questions to CBSE and the Modi government received insult instead of answers. In the video, students told Rahul that when they asked questions about the answer sheets, they were called anti-nationals, deep state agents (spies), terrorists, and Pakistanis. Rahul laughed and said, “17-year-old deep state agents.” Among the students Rahul spoke to, Vedant was also included. A post by Vedant went viral, in which he claimed that during re-evaluation, someone else’s copy was uploaded on the portal instead of his Physics copy. After Vedant, many other students also made similar complaints. Rahul said – PM talks about mangoes, no time for students Rahul Gandhi made another post about 6 hours after posting the video of his interaction with students. He wrote that this morning the Prime Minister had time to talk about mangoes, but no time to talk about those 18.5 lakh students. Rahul alleged that students’ answer sheets were scanned with mobile phones. He said – In CBSE’s tender in May 2025, there was a condition to scan answer sheets with an automatic robotic scanner at 300 DPI quality. But in the new tender issued in August, these conditions were removed and the scanning quality was reduced from 300 DPI to 200 DPI. May 27: Rahul had raised questions about the company doing OSM work Rahul Gandhi had also raised questions about COEMPT, the company doing OSM work. He said that the COEMPT company, to which CBSE awarded the contract for digital evaluation of exams, was previously named Globarina. Rahul questioned why COEMPT was given the CBSE contract and at whose behest. Which rules and procedures were bypassed to award this company the contract? COEMPT was previously embroiled in controversies under the name Globarina. Why did CBSE not know this? What is the relationship between COEMPT management and the Modi government? May 27: ‘Company was given contract under rules’, said CBSE However, CBSE rejected Rahul’s allegations. A statement issued by CBSE headquarters said that all General Financial Rules and prescribed procedures were followed in awarding the contract to COEMPT Edutech. The allegations are false, misleading, and not based on facts. CBSE says that this makes checking faster and more accurate, and reduces errors in adding marks or data entry. The opposite happened after the results. Students complained about server down, payment failure, and blurred pages. Allegations of irregularities in Telangana Board Exam against COEMPT COEMPT Edutech is a Hyderabad-based company from Telangana. This firm handles digital evaluation work in states like Telangana, Karnataka, and West Bengal. In 2019, its name was Globarena Technologies Private Limited. At that time, it was accused of irregularities in data processing during the 12th board exams in Telangana. That year, more than 3 lakh out of 9.74 lakh students failed in the state. ​