New Delhi [India], May 31 : Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the Centre and the CBSE of compromising the evaluation process of answer sheets, alleging that changes in tender specifications led to answer sheets being scanned using mobile phones.
In a post on X, Gandhi referred to a CBSE tender issued in May 2025 and alleged that technical requirements related to scanning answer sheets were diluted in a revised tender released later.
"CBSE's May 2025 tender required answer sheets to be scanned with automatic robotic scanners, spines preserved, at a minimum of 300 DPI. The tender reissued in August quietly removed all of it. 'Scanners' became generic. Resolution dropped to 200 DPI," Gandhi said.
He further alleged that answer sheets were scanned using mobile phones.
"Now we know what that meant in practice. It has been exposed that COEMPT scanned the answer sheets using mobile phones. The blurred copies, the missing pages, the unscanned books -- they are not 'errors.' They are the predictable outcome of a contract written to fit a vendor," Gandhi alleged.
Calling the matter "fraud," Gandhi said, "This is fraud. And every child whose marks were wrongly evaluated is a victim of it."
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Gandhi questioned the Centre's silence over the matter.
"This morning, the Prime Minister had time to speak about mangoes. He has not had time to speak about 18.5 lakh children whose answer sheets were scanned with phones. Dharmendra Pradhan still sits in office. Modi's silence is no longer indifference. It is complicity," Gandhi said.
His remarks come at a time when the CBSE is facing mounting pressure following reports of technical failures in its post-result portal and discrepancies in evaluated answer sheets.
Earlier in the day, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also launched a sharp attack on the Centre amid the ongoing controversy over alleged irregularities and growing concerns in the CBSE evaluation process, claiming that students raising concerns were being labelled as "Deep State Agents" and "Pakistanis" instead of being heard.
In a post on X, Kharge claimed that both CBSE students and NEET aspirants had become victims of what he described as the government's failures in the education sector.