'Beware of pickpockets': Rahul Gandhi targets CBSE over re-evaluation fee amid OSM row

'The mistake is CBSE's. The punishment is the child's. The earnings are the government's', says Congress leader

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched yet another attack on the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) regarding its post-result fee structure, accusing the board of charging students a range of fees for re-evaluation, even when discrepancies are allegedly because of its own mistakes.

In a post on X, the Congress leader pointed out the high costs associated with requesting scanned copies, re-totalling, and re-evaluation, and said that students were being penalised for systemic failures.

Rahul Gandhi criticised the board for charging students for corrections allegedly caused by errors in the digital scanning process.

"Beware of pickpockets today they're 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: 25/question. A child might have to shell out up to ₹2000 just to get their own answer sheet properly checked. Think about it: when 4 lakh kids have filed such applications, how much is CBSE raking in. When scanning was done with a phone, wrong marking is a given. And the child is footing the bill to get it fixed."

The Congress leader alleged that widespread marking errors effectively penalise students who seek corrections, and that the government was profiting from it.

"The mistake is CBSE's. The punishment is the child's. The earnings are the government's."

He said, "When education is turned from a service into a business, mistakes aren't corrected. They're multiplied," students are "paying the steepest price for it - with their time, their self-confidence, and their future."

On Sunday, Rahul Gandhi doubled down his attack on Narendra Modi over CBSE OSM row, saying that the Prime Minister has time to speak about mangoes in his 'Mann ki Baat' but not for 18.5 lakh students whose answer sheets were scanned with phones.

Rahul has been attacking the government over the CBSE row, repeatedly demanding the sacking of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, amid allegations of conflict of interest in the CBSE OSM tender and the leakage of NEET UG 2026 paper. He has also accused Modi of destroying Indian education system.