Rahul Targets Centre Over CBSE OSM Row, Alleges Fraud in Scanning Process

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, on Sunday, May 31, 2026, intensified his criticism of the Centre and the CBSE over the On-Screen Marking (OSM) controversy, calling the episode a “fraud” and alleging that changes in tender conditions allowed irregularities in the scanning of answer sheets. He claimed the CBSE’s May 2025 tender had required answer sheets to be scanned using automatic robotic scanners, with spines preserved and a minimum resolution of 300 DPI, but that a reissued tender in August removed those conditions, reduced the resolution to 200 DPI, and made room for COEMPT to be selected as the vendor.

Gandhi said blurred copies, missing pages and unscanned books were not accidental errors but the expected result of a contract tailored to suit a particular company. He alleged that the situation had harmed students whose marks were wrongly evaluated and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of remaining silent on the issue, despite what he said involved 18.5 lakh children whose answer sheets were scanned with phones. Gandhi also criticised Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, saying he remained in office even as the controversy deepened.

The Congress leader shared a video of his meeting with students affected by the issue, including Vedant, a Class 12 student whose complaint first drew attention to the controversy after he said the Physics answer sheet uploaded by the CBSE during revaluation was not his. The claim quickly spread online, and several other students later reported similar mismatches. In the video, Gandhi spoke to Vedant and other students in an informal setting, referring to allegations that they had been labelled “Pakistanis” and “deep state agents” for raising concerns. He said the students were only asking for their answer sheets and should not be branded anti-national for demanding answers.

Gandhi said the students deserved a bright future and that the Congress would ensure they received one. He also mocked the BJP’s frequent attacks on him, including references to George Soros and accusations that he is anti-national. The video included Gandhi jokingly asking the cameraperson to show the faces of the supposed “terrorists,” referring to the students.

COEMPT, the company that handled OSM for CBSE examinations, has come under sustained criticism from Gandhi, who has alleged that the firm, previously known as Globarena, had a controversial background in Telangana. He has demanded an independent judicial probe as well as a Special Investigation Team inquiry into what he described as an entire scam, and has questioned why the contract was awarded to the company.

Separately, Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh alleged a major data breach in the CBSE Class 12 examination system, saying answer sheets of nearly two million students were available in the public domain. He called it a data breach of “monumental proportions” and said it exposed the incompetence and carelessness of COEMPT. Ramesh also raised questions over the quality of the scanned copies, saying they appeared to have folds and drop shadows typical of mobile-phone scans, and asked what kind of scanners were ultimately used after the robotic-scanner requirement was removed.

The Congress has continued to demand Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and a CBI probe into the matter.