‘Mantri Pradhan’ clings to office; whose patronage protects him: Congress

The Congress on Wednesday intensified its attack on Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the controversy surrounding the CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, accusing the ministry of incompetence, corruption and a lack of accountability.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the recent transfer of top CBSE officials was merely cosmetic and questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to back Pradhan despite mounting allegations against the ministry.

"The CBSE leadership may have been transferred out, but the Mantri Pradhan is shamelessly digging his heels in office even while evidence of his ministry's incompetence and corruption piles up," Ramesh said in a post on X.

The Congress leader referred to reports that CBSE officials were unable to adequately respond to questions raised by a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, chaired by Digvijaya Singh, regarding the procurement process for the OSM system. The committee had reportedly heard concerns from 18-year-old student Sarthak Sidhant, who first flagged alleged irregularities in the tender process on social media.

Calling it a "glaring lack of accountability", Ramesh also cited media reports suggesting that participants in a CBSE trial run of the OSM system had warned the board about technical glitches and recommended delaying its implementation until evaluators were properly trained.

According to Ramesh, CBSE proceeded with the rollout despite those concerns and failed to address several of the issues highlighted during testing.

He further alleged that the board repeatedly missed deadlines for the re-evaluation process. "It first postponed the date from 29 May and then failed to meet its own 1 June deadline. When the portal finally opened on 2 June, several students faced difficulties accessing it and making payments," he said.

Escalating the political attack, Ramesh claimed that even NDA supporters were questioning Pradhan's continuation in office.

"Why is the Pradhan Mantri insistent on protecting him? Whose patronage has ensured his survival so far?" he asked.

The remarks come a day after the Congress dismissed the government's decision to transfer CBSE chairman Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta as an eyewash. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had demanded Pradhan's dismissal and called for an independent judicial probe into the controversy.

The row erupted after several Class 12 students alleged that scanned copies of their answer sheets uploaded by CBSE did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer-sheet mismatches under the digital evaluation system.

Amid the growing controversy, the Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday announced the formation of a one-member inquiry committee headed by S. Radha Chauhan to examine the procurement of services for the OSM system and related issues.

The probe is expected to scrutinise both the procurement process and the implementation of the digital evaluation system, which has come under increasing public and political scrutiny.

With PTI inputs