Students asking for answer sheets can't be called anti-national: Rahul Gandhi on CBSE row

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi came out in support of students raising concerns over alleged discrepancies in CBSE answer sheets, saying those seeking transparency and clarification should not be branded anti-national, Pakistani or terrorists.

During an interaction with students affected by the controversy surrounding the CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, one student described how he allegedly found that parts of the answer sheet provided by the board did not match his handwriting.

The student said he was surprised by his Physics marks despite believing he had performed well in the examination. After applying for a scanned copy of his answer sheet, he claimed to have noticed inconsistencies.

“When I opened the photocopy, the handwriting on the first page was mine. But when I looked further, the handwriting was someone else's. That's when I realised it was not my answer sheet,” the student told Gandhi.

The student alleged that after raising the issue publicly, he and others questioning the evaluation process faced online attacks and were accused of acting with ulterior motives.

“They started calling us anti-national and Pakistani. Suddenly Soros, Pakistan and everybody else came into the picture. We were called Deep State agents. Some people even called us terrorists,” he said.

Reacting to the student's account, Gandhi criticised attempts to discredit students rather than address their concerns.

“That's crazy. That is very crazy. That is not right,” Gandhi said.

“You are students. You've got nothing to do with any of this. You are asking for your answer sheets, that's all. Now suddenly you become anti-nationals?”

The Congress leader said institutions must first recognise a problem before they can solve it.

“You have to accept the problem if you want to solve the problem. Instead, you are refusing to accept that there is a problem. You are blaming poor kids and saying they are Deep State agents, spies or terrorists,” he said.

When students told him that some social media users had also labelled them terrorists, Gandhi responded, “Terrorists too? Well done.”

The interaction comes amid growing scrutiny of the CBSE's digital evaluation process after several students alleged discrepancies in answer sheets and sought re-evaluation of their results.

The controversy intensified after some students claimed that scanned copies of answer sheets shared by the board did not match their handwriting, leading to demands for greater transparency and a review of the evaluation process.

CBSE has said that complaints are being examined and has maintained that the integrity of its evaluation system remains intact.