Sarthak Siddhant, one of the three known CBSE-OSM whistleblowers, advised Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijit Deepki to ensure that the movement is driven by a real issue rather than what he described as “internet interest”. Student-led campaigns must translate anger into meaningful action, he said.
In an exclusive interview with HT, Sarthak Siddhant spoke about the viral online movement that started as a satirical reaction to the Chief Justice of India’s recent remarks. He said he would “not become a politician”, but stressed that any party or campaign formed by students must have an “actual cause”.
“Just as I did some investigations, Nisarg did some investigations — we did them to help students,” he said, distinguishing between activity stemming from research and trends driven by social media. Siddhant Vedant Shrivastava also mentioned in his statements.
Teenagers Sidhant, Vedant and “ethical hacker” Nisarga Adhikary have emerged as key figures who pointed out problems in CBSE’s OSM assessment system after discovering discrepancies in Class 12 marks – becoming the face of a wider student backlash over controversies over exams this year, including the now-canceled NEET-UG 2026 exam, which was set for a re-examination on June 21 after a paper leak.
Siddhant cautioned against limiting activity to online spaces, saying, “Online activity is good,” but “sitting on their backseats and doing nothing is not.” He added that he would not support a movement aimed solely at attracting attention online.
“Yes, online activism is fine. What I did, what Nisarj did, what Vedant did is online activism in general. But I would say they are sitting on their back seats and if they are not doing anything, they are not actively involved in anything, and that is bad.”
Who is Sarthak Siddhant?
Sarthak Siddhant, 17, posted his findings on his website, sarthaksidhant.com/coempt, after spending several days, he said, reviewing tender documents on the central public procurement portal. This came after the low pass percentage in CBSE led to questions being asked about the OSM system, and some students reported errors, mismatches and mix-ups.
Sidhant’s blog, titled “How CBSE rewrote the rules in favor of Coempt EduTeck”, alleged that the board systematically tweaked the eligibility and technical requirements across three successive bidding rounds in a way that benefited the eventual winning vendor, Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck Private Limited.
“It is a story of how a massive public institution deliberately manipulated students’ futures by rewriting its own rule book,” Siddhant wrote in his blog op-ed.
The company denied any wrongdoing, as did CBSE.
Siddhant was on Tuesday asked to appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports. According to people familiar with his bid which was mentioned in an earlier HT report, Siddhant told the committee that CBSE had floated three separate tenders for the OSM system. The first, released in February 2025, was ultimately canceled without a successful bidder. The second, issued in May 2025, received four bids but was not awarded. The third contract, tendered in August 2025, attracted bids from Rankguru, TCS and Coempt, with the contract ultimately going to Coempt after Rankguru failed to qualify for the technical stage.
