After the matter blew up on social media, the Joint Secretary (Coordination) of CBSE admitted the mismatch and informed him that his marks would be corrected.
A Class XII student, Vedant Shrivastava, who merely pointed out a patchwork on his physics board exam answer sheet, has been trolled on social media and labeled as a ‘Pakistani’, all due to apparent discrepancies in the new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). He later received an apology from the board for the mix-up, but his attempt to correctly grade his actual answer sheet also exposed him to the dark side of social media.
Notably, ever since the CBSE announced the results of the Class 12 examinations, students have raised concerns about the OSM-based evaluation system used to evaluate the answer papers. The overall pass percentage for Class 12 also decreased by 3.19 percentage points to 85.20 this year. Following the backlash, the board opened a window allowing students to access scanned copies of their examined answer books.
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However, complaints about errors and technical problems continued in the re-evaluation process. Some Class 12 students have claimed that answer sheets uploaded by CBSE do not appear to match their handwriting, leading to fresh concerns over possible mismatches in the OSM system.
Vedant Shrivastava case
The Delhi student had requested scanned copies of his answer sheets on May 19 after getting what he called “unexpectedly low marks” in Physics when CBSE released his Class 12 results on May 13.
After receiving the scanned copies on May 23, he realized that the physics answer sheet linked to his roll number did not belong to him.
He pointed out the problem in a post on X and uploaded side-by-side screenshots of his English and Computer Science papers to show that the handwriting in the physics text was different.
“I studied for a whole year. I sacrificed sleep, peace of mind, outings and everything for these exams. And now I don’t even know if my actual physics paper was checked or not. Do students really deserve this?” he said in a post on X on May 23.
It is called “Pakistani” because of the apparent contradiction
By Monday evening, the post had surpassed 3.2 million views and quickly turned into an even bigger controversy on social media.
Soon after, he became the target of online trolling and offensive comments. Many users accused him of trying to damage CBSE’s image and questioned why his X profile site said ‘South Asian’. Some described him as “anti-national”, while others described him as “Pakistani”.
Among those who initially called the student a “Pakistani” was journalist Ashok Shrivastav of Doordarshan News. He later apologized, but his comments sparked backlash online.
Many people later came out in support of the student, including Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
“A 17-year-old boy, whose answer sheet was incorrectly graded, took to social media in the hope of justice. But instead of help, he was abused – the BJP’s IT cell branded him ‘anti-national’, branded him a ‘Soros agent’, and part of the ‘deep state’.”
Vedant also received support from the newly formed youth and Gen Z led “Cockroach Janta Party”, which now operates under the title “Cockroach is Back” on X after his initial account was blocked, as well as from its founder Abhijit Deepki.
A party post on the
Notably, Profile X’s location can sometimes display broader regional tags such as “South Asia”, depending on user preferences and app settings.
Vedant’s father and brother are being abused online
“My son had a lot of difficulty even applying for re-evaluation. After getting the scanned copies, he could not sleep properly and decided to raise the matter on X by posting screenshots of his answer scripts,” his father, Sanjay Shrivastava, told HT.
He added, “He was summoned to Pakistan and was severely trolled because his account website was showing South Asia. His brother later explained that this was due to a technical issue while setting up the account. This affected his mental health and he is staying away from his phone now.”
Later, Vedant’s brother Siddhanta shared posts supporting him and said that the X account was created only recently to raise the issue.
“I am Vidant’s brother and I feel horrified when I see how people call us Pakistanis. Vidant did not even have Twitter because he was busy studying instead of tweeting. We created the account just to raise his real issue,” he said.
CBSE responds to Vedant case
After the matter blew up on social media, the Joint Secretary (Coordination) of CBSE admitted the mismatch and informed him that his marks would be corrected soon. HT reviewed the message sent to the student.
A senior CBSE official also confirmed the error, but did not explain the reason behind it.
“We contacted Vedant Shrivastava today and emailed him the correct answer copy. His marks will be updated accordingly,” said the official, requesting anonymity.
However, the official did not explain how another Physics answer sheet was uploaded under his record number. “We will delve into the matter and share details later,” the official said.
CBSE also addressed its concerns in a response to
The student later moved to X to show that the problem had been resolved. He wrote: “We got my correct answer sheet from CBSE. CBSE officials contacted us in the evening and sent my answer sheet. We were right in our claims and the answer sheet has already been exchanged.”
Siddhanta, Vedant’s brother, also shared a post on X later, seemingly replying to the trolls after resolving his brother’s issue.
He wrote: “Stoning Shawwal after this hectic day, thank you so much to everyone who supported us from Vedant and Sidant, we are not Pakistanis.”
What is OSM and why has it caused controversy?
The on-screen marking system was introduced this year for Class 12 board assessments as part of CBSE’s efforts to make assessment faster, more digital and more transparent post results.
However, students later began reporting problems, including unclear scans, missing pages and answer sheets linked to the wrong candidates.
Under the system, answer sheets were scanned and uploaded online, where teachers evaluated them on computer screens. Marks and comments were entered digitally, and total scores were automatically calculated to reduce errors.
CBSE has repeatedly said that the system has increased transparency and improved the evaluation process. During a press conference on May 17, officials defended the system and said it would also be used during the reevaluation.
However, on May 23, the board agreed that students experienced “difficulties accessing the portal during peak demand, delays in payment confirmation, unclear or missing pages, and uncertainties related to unmarked answers,” adding that these concerns reflected “technical capacity challenges and student concerns.”
A day later, on May 24, CBSE admitted that technical issues on May 21 and 22 led to incorrect fee deductions and said the additional payments would be refunded automatically.
With inputs from Sanjay Maurya wa For agencies
