When Vedant Srivastava, a Class 12 student from Delhi, posted about his CBSE Physics paper mix-up on X, he probably did not expect a senior journalist to accuse him of being Pakistani.
On May 23, after receiving unexpectedly low marks in Physics, Vedant had applied for photocopies of his answer sheets through CBSE's reevaluation process. When the copies arrived, he discovered that the Physics answer sheet uploaded by the Board was not his. He made an X account to post about his grievances.
Vedant's complaint came amid mounting criticism of the CBSE's On-Screen Marking system, introduced this year for Class 12 evaluations. After results dropped to an 85.2% pass rate, the lowest since 2019, students alleged incorrect marking, blurred scans, unchecked answers, and page-wise marks not matching final totals. The re-evaluation portal also crashed repeatedly during payments and submissions. CBSE and the education ministry defended the system, saying it improved objectivity. Fees for re-evaluation were slashed under pressure; scanned copy charges dropped from Rs 700 to Rs 100 per subject.
Upon seeing Vedant's post, Doordarshan News anchor Ashok Shrivastav, the face of their primetime programme Do Took, checked the region listed on the X handle and found it said "South Asia." On the basis of this, Shrivastav concluded that the account belonged to a Pakistani user. Taking to X, he sarcastically wrote in Hindi: "Did Pakistanis also appear for CBSE exams?!!"
Several other Right Wing influencers, including @MrSinha_ and Ajeet Bharti, also amplified the same claim.
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Shrivastav, however, had to delete his post after he found out that Vedant was, in fact, a student. In a clarificatory post, he apologised to Vedant and his family for his mistake. Yet in the same post, he also wrote, "... The reason why the location of his tweet is showing from outside India is still not known... But I still hope that if the correct information about the account's location is received, the matter will become even clearer."
Vedant and his brother Siddhant Srivastava took to the social media platform to deny the allegations levelled by Shrivastav. Expressing his dismay, Siddhant noted that Vedant only recently made the X handle since he could not apply for reevaluation and had to flag his issues. Siddhant also claimed that for a new account, X takes one to three days to pinpoint a country. "...otherwise it shows a broader region", he said.
In another video posted by Vedant, he showed how he was unable to change the location of his handle from South Asia.
Aaj Tak also went to Vedant's house to interview him about the marking controversy. Finally, on May 25, Vedant posted on X that the CBSE officials reached out to him and sent him the correct answer sheet. Thanking all those who supported him during the controversy, he said "People called us antinational and Pakistani just because we raised a genuine concern and at the end Truth has prevailed".
Ashok Shrivastav also issued a formal apology to Vedant under one of his initial posts. "Dear Vedant,
I learned from Vineet ji that your issue has been resolved. I was delighted to hear that. Wishing you all the very best for the future. And for any distress caused to you and your family on my account, I offer my sincere apologies", the apology read.
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