'Beware of pickpockets inside CBSE': Rahul Gandhi slams govt over re-evaluation cost amid OSM row

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday warned students to be "beware of pickpockets" in CBSE over charges imposed for re-evaluation or checking of answer sheets, as the Congress asked Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to follow "raj dharma" and resign.

Posting a video of his interaction with a group of CBSE students in which they were discussing the charges imposed by the CBSE, Rahul said, students will have to spend Rs 100 each for a digital scan copy and re-totalling and Rs 25 per question for re-evaluation.

"Beware of pickpockets -- today  they are sitting inside CBSE. If marks come out wrong due to CBSE's mistake, what do you get? A bill:  Digital scan copy: ₹100/subject  Re-totalling: ₹100/paper  Re-evaluation: Rs 25/question. A child might have to shell out up to Rs 2,000 just to get their own answer sheet properly checked. Think about it: when four lakh kids have filed such applications, how much is CBSE raking in?" he said.

"When scanning was done with a phone, wrong marking is given, and the child is footing the bill to get it fixed. The mistake is CBSE's. The punishment is for the child. The earnings are the government's. When education is turned from a service into a business, mistakes aren't corrected. They're multiplied. And our children are paying the steepest price for it - with their time, their self-confidence, and their future," he added.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said the CBSE has finally acknowledged that the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in its On Screen Marking (OSM) system have been compromised, after denying it for weeks.

"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? '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 posted on X.

"The 'Pradhan Mantri' (Prime Minister 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," he said.

Congress Media and Publicity Department Chairman Pawan Khera told in a press conference that 12 years of "blatant misrule and relentless propaganda" by the Modi government have "eaten away the foundations of India's education system" and it stands exposed by its "disastrous record" on education.

"The 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.

"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. 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 PM. At the least, what the Pradhan Mantri can do is to immediately remove Mantri Pradhan," Khera said.