PM Modi only cares about survival of his govt, not kids' future: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the CBSE debacle and inaction against the education minister showed he cared only about the survival of his government and not the future of lakhs of students.

In a post on X, Gandhi said he had been demanding an independent judicial probe from day one into the CBSE's on-screen marking and the award of the contract to COEMPT as the youth of the country deserved to know the truth.

Gandhi shared media reports and called upon people to read them carefully.

"CBSE called for OSM tenders thrice. Zero bids the first time. No qualified bidder the second time. And finally, the technical bar was lowered until COEMPT could clear it. Scanning resolution cut. Robotic scanner requirement dropped. CMMI certification lowered from Level 5 to Level 3. Penalties for errors in answer sheets removed.

"TCS, India’s biggest IT services company, qualified in the third round too. TCS lost. COEMPT - a company with a spectacular track record of failure - won. And what are CBSE students complaining about today? Badly scanned answer sheets. Missing pages. A broken evaluation portal," he said.

Gandhi said teachers had warned the CBSE that the OSM system needed at least a year or two for further preparation before nationwide implementation, yet it was rushed through.

"So I ask again - who wanted COEMPT to win? Who lowered the bar, step by step, until this company could clear it? "Pradhan ji and CBSE say “due process was followed.” That is not an answer, that is not accountability. The question is whether the contract was honestly awarded to the best company which could do the job correctly," the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said.

He said the futures of 18.5 lakh children were handed to a company that could only qualify after the rules were "bent" for it.

"To the BJP ministers attacking me for asking questions - I have, from day one, demanded an independent judicial probe. Expand it from CBSE to every contract awarded to COEMPT. Our youth deserve the truth.

"And Modi ji, your silence on the CBSE debacle and inaction against the Education Minister tells the country what you actually care about - not the futures of lakhs of students, only the survival of your own government," Gandhi said.

Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh cited media reports and said they uncovered that the CBSE kept diluting the technical conditions in its Request for Proposals (RFPs) from contractors providing the on-screen marking (OSM) system for Class 12 board examinations this year.

Among other concerns, he said, were that the minimum scanning resolution was reduced from 300 DPI to 200 DPI, the mandatory Capability Maturity Model Integration certification was lowered from Level 5 to Level 3, penalties were oriented away from targeting errors to targeting speed, stipulation to scan without cutting the spine was removed, and the provision for a robotic scanner was dropped.

"The final RFP was issued only in August 2025, six months before the CBSE Grade 12 Board Exams. We already know that in the haste to roll out the OSM, the CBSE Board’s wise suggestion to conduct pilots at the regional centers was ignored.

"Clearly, the CBSE’s actions were characterised by an undue haste and an attempt to dilute quality and student-centric provisions to ensure that OSM is adopted by this year.

"Several questions emerge – Why were the technical conditions in the RFP weakened? Was this done at the instance of the contractors who were bidding for the tender? Why did the CBSE weaken provisions that would have minimised errors and supported students and evaluators (higher scanning resolution, penalties for wrongly scanned copies, etc)? What constraints or pressures was it responding to?" he asked in his post.

Ramesh also asked what was the reason for the haste in adopting OSM without the due diligence of regional pilots and at the cost of diluting the technological infrastructure.

"Were background checks done on COEMPT, the company which was eventually given the contract by CBSE? Did the CBSE ever consider the fact that COEMPT was previously called Globarena and mired in controversies? Or was there pressure from the Modi Government’s political masters to ensure the contract went to COEMPT? "The CBSE must come clean and release all documents relating to the choice of vendors, the modifications in the RFP, the reasons for the haste in adopting OSM, and the minutes of board meetings conducted in the run-up to the examinations. Perhaps the Mantri Pradhan can answer these questions instead of mudslinging and politicking," the Congress leader said.