The Congress on Monday sharply criticised the Modi government over the CBSE OSM controversy, claiming that the "Pradhan Mantri" has never held himself or his ministers to standards of accountability or ethics, and asserting that the "Mantri Pradhan" should uphold his "rajdharma" by stepping down immediately.
The opposition party reiterated its demand that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan must resign immediately, alleging that he had presided "over one of the biggest institutional failures in India's education history".
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh shared a media report on X and said that after denying the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in its On Screen Marking (OSM) system for weeks, the CBSE has finally acknowledged that the system has been compromised.
But what action is it planning to take against its contractor COEMPT, he asked, adding, "not much".
It appears that the COEMPT's benefactors in the CBSE and the Ministry of Education anticipated that COEMPT would not be fit for the task, he said.
In its August 2025 RFP, the CBSE had retained the power to blacklist vendors who were unable to deliver effectively, Ramesh pointed out.
In September, the CBSE issued a corrigendum that took away its own power to blacklist these vendors, he said.
"This is an inexplicable, government-backed attempt to save COEMPT, and it began even before COEMPT got the contract officially," Ramesh said in his post on X.
How much longer will the nation have to put up with Mantri Pradhan, whose Ministry has overseen and enabled such unfathomable irregularities in its tenders and which has cost lakhs of students their mental well-being, Ramesh asked taking a swipe at Pradhan.
"Mantri Pradhan is the very epitome of arrogance and incompetence, insistent on putting his political agenda above and beyond any responsibility to the nation," he alleged.
"The Pradhan Mantri (PM Narendra Modi) has never been known to hold himself or his colleagues to any standard of probity or morality. But the Mantri Pradhan should follow his rajdharma and resign," Ramesh said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked the Modi government over the CBSE's re-evaluation process and cost, saying that when education is treated not as a service but as a business, errors are not corrected but multiplied.
Several CBSE Class 12 students had flagged mix-up cases after accessing scanned copies uploaded on the portal and finding that the answer sheets did not belong to them.
The CBSE later reached out to them and shared their correct answer sheets.
The Board said that it had taken up on "top priority" the cases related to alleged mismatched answer sheets and other concerns faced by students in the revaluation process.
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the Modi government stands exposed by its disastrous record on education.
He alleged that 12 years of blatant misrule and relentless propaganda have eaten away at the foundations of India's education system.
"CBSE compromised, UGC destroyed, scientific temper diminished, NCERT Textbook coloured, Vice Chancellors appointed by the RSS, any student protests bulldozed, rights of SC-ST-OBC-EWS-minority youth snatched, unemployment at its peak and persistent cuts in education budget-is the story of India's youth under BJP," he said at a press conference here.
The BJP has put the future of India's students on hold, leaving institutions weakened, standards compromised, and millions of young paying the price for years of deliberate neglect, propaganda, and extortion, Khera alleged.
"While PM Modi continued on a personal PR spree with 'Pariksha Pe Charcha' and 'Exam Warriors', crores of young students and their parents suffer daily, even as BJP mints money through mafia and loot," he said.
"More than 9 crore students in 90 paper leaks, along with their parents, have been left to fend for themselves. Not even a single word of responsibility has been uttered by the Prime Minister. At the least, what the Pradhan Mantri can do is to immediately remove Mantri Pradhan," Khera said.
Numerous paper leaks exposed the BJP's nexus with the paper leak mafia, he claimed.
Posing questions to the government, Khera asked why did the CBSE ignore internal warnings from teachers and experts about 36 major flaws in the digital evaluation system and recklessly impose it on 18.5 lakh students within weeks.
Who ordered the dilution of CBSE tender norms by reducing scan quality standards, removing mandatory robotic scanners and weakening cybersecurity safeguards before awarding the contract, he asked.
"Why were technical eligibility rules repeatedly changed until a particular vendor became eligible, and what explains the alleged proximity between the contractor and individuals linked to the BJP ecosystem?" he said.
"Why was it preferred over TCS, despite a shady track record, and a name change? Why was the CBSE OSM contract handed to COEMPT - a company already mired in controversy under its old name, Globarena? On whose orders was it done? Why were no background checks done? What is the connection between COEMPT's management and the Modi government?" Khera said.
After destroying the credibility of exams from NEET and UGC NET to CUET and CBSE, hollowing out UGC funding, shutting schools and pushing India's education system into chaos, will PM Modi finally fix accountability or continue shielding failure, Khera asked.
(With inputs from PTI)