Soon after the CBSE chairman and secretary were transferred amid a row over the on-screen marking system, the Opposition called for tougher action and the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Turning to X, the Indian National Congress reiterated its call for Pradhan’s resignation. “The entire responsibility for irregularities in CBSE lies with the Education Ministry, and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is responsible for this,” the party wrote, adding that Dharmendra Pradhan “has no right to remain in office.”
“The contract was awarded to a corrupt company like COEMPT under the supervision of Dharmendra Pradhan and the Modi government. The Modi government cannot escape accountability through these petty actions. Dharmendra Pradhan has no right to remain in office. Narendra Modi must stop protecting him and sack him immediately,” the Indian National Congress added. The company and CBSE have denied any corruption, though the Center has now ordered a probe.
Read also | The CBSE chairman and secretary were transferred in a government action amid the OSM row
Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, also reacted to the transfer and accused the government of a “cover-up”.
“The officials have been removed. The minister has been relieved. This is not accountability, it is a cover-up,” Gandhi wrote on X.
“If the Prime Minister had cared about the 18.5 million CBSE students, Dharmendra Pradhan ji would have been sacked long ago,” the Congressman added.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also said that the actions taken by the government to transfer CBSE officials show wrongdoing.
“Today’s action, clearly timed after the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education with the CBSE Board, is an attempt to deflect and pin accountability on bureaucrats rather than political leadership. It must be remembered that CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh was given a two-year extension by the Cabinet Committee on Appointments in November 2025,” Ramesh wrote on X.
Arvind Kejriwal, national coordinator of the Aam Aadmi Party, also called for tougher measures and accused the Modi government of “protecting officials”.
“What? CBSE chairman and secretary transferred? Bass? Is the government’s response to such a huge scandal? Is this punishment or protection?”, he wrote on X.
OSM GATE Class for CBSE
Over the past few weeks, posts from students, parents and teachers have gone viral on social media, alleging irregularities in CBSE’s OSM portal.
However, the case came into the national spotlight after two teenagers exposed faulty systems at the board.
17-year-old Sarthak Siddhant made headlines after he posted his findings after reviewing tender documents on the central public procurement portal. Its findings claimed that the Central Board of Secondary Education had “rewritten the rules” in favor of Coempt EduTeck.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Nisarga Adhikary claimed that he managed to hack the OSM portal and identified critical vulnerabilities in the portal.
In a detailed blog post published on his website and also shared on X, Nisarga said he had identified several major security flaws in the CBSE portal in February and reported them to CERT-In.
