Savage replies, shoutout to journo: How Sarthak Sidhant, teen who flagged CBSE-OSM issue, has become X’s newest ‘chad’

AS the contention surrounding telephone exchange room of Secondary Education's (CBSE) On-Screen scoring (OSM) scheme tender process snowballed online, 17-year-old student Sarthak Sidhant appeared before a parliamentary panel on Tuesday and presented a detailed account of the procurement process and alleged irregularities he claimed to have identified in official documents.Since emerging as one of the top voices to flag possible glaring issues surrounding CBSE's OSM system, Sidhant has also emerged as an unlikely social media favourite for his sharp and often savage replies to trolls on X.Who is Sarthak SidhantSarthak Sidhant, 17, published his findings at his website, sarthaksidhant.com/coempt, after, according to him, spending several days reviewing tender documents on the Central Public Procurement portal. This came after a fall in CBSE pass percentage led to questions over the OSM system, and some students reported errors, mismatch and mix-ups.Sidhant's blog, titled ‘How CBSE rewrote rules to favour Coempt EduTeck’, alleged that the board systematically modified eligibility and technical requirements across three successive tender rounds in a manner that benefited the eventual winning vendor, Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck Private Limited.“This is a story of how a massive public institution deliberately played with students' futures by rewriting its own rulebook,” Sidhant wrote in his blog's opening.The company denied any wrongdoing, so did the CBSE.Sidhant was on Tuesday asked to appear before Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports. According to people familiar with his presentation cited in an earlier HT report, Sidhant told the committee that CBSE had floated three separate tenders for the OSM system. The first, issued in February 2025, was eventually cancelled without a successful bidder. The second, issued in May 2025, received four bids but was not awarded. The third, floated in August 2025, attracted bids from Rankguru, TCS and Coempt, with the contract ultimately going to Coempt after Rankguru failed to qualify the technical stage.Sidhant's X replies, shoutout for journalistOver the past few days, Sidhant's posts and one-line responses have gone viral, particularly as news channels and portals began competing over "exclusive" reporting linked to the issue originally flagged by CBSE students and later pursued through detailed reporting by very few.In one widely shared reply, Sidhant came out in support of Hindustan Times reporter Sanjay Maurya after a user accused media outlets of "stealing credit" from students who first raised concerns."Sanjay is doing actual exclusives. He is doing actual investigative journalism," Sidhant wrote in response to a post that had accused the HT journalist of not crediting "the actual guys that did the investigative journalism". Responding to another news portals post claiming major impact from their coverage after CBSE officials were transferred and a probe committee was formed, Sidhant sarcastically replied: "very nice investigation, i wonder who did it."His replies have ranged from sarcastic to self-aware. When one user posted an old image of him while asking whether reports were true that he had demanded Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation before the parliamentary standing committee, Sidhant shot back: "Can u stop using this photo, there are like way better photos."“Woah, are reports true that Sarthak Sidhant demanded Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee? He is the real chad,” the user who Sidhant replied to had posted.Asked by another user how he had been "feeling with all the recent controversies", he responded with a screen recording featuring pictures of New York politician Zohran Mamdani captioned: "this is how i am feeling".He also sparred with critics accusing him of spreading "misleading CBSE tender propaganda by Rahul Gandhi puppet". When one such user challenged him to join an X Spaces discussion, Sidhant replied in Hindi: "media se baat nhi karta tujhse kyu karunga [I don't speak to media, why would I speak to you]." In another jab at the same user, he later wrote: "he was playing romantic music all the time i think he is in love with me."Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday evening met Sarthak Sidhant, the second teenaged whistleblower of sorts — of the three overall — whom Gandhi has publicly backed in three days. “Sarthak, apne sidhanton pe adig raho,” Rahul said in Hindi on X, using the student's name in wordplay to say, “Sarthak, stay firm on your principles ['sidhant'].” Gandhi on May 31 met Vedant Shrivastava, the other student.The CBSE has found itself in a mess with raining students' complains over mismatch in their Class 12 answer sheets, produced by the board through the new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system — an evaluation method that has drawn criticisms as well as questions for being faulty.CBSE has been going around giving out clarifications and debunking allegations by Opposition after discrepancies flagged on May 23 by a Delhi student, Vedant Shrivastava, over mismatch of his Physics paper gave momentum to the already floating complains surrounding the OSM system of evaluation.Sidhant, Vedant and a third teenager - 19-year-old Nisarga Adhikary, an “ethical hacker” who flagged alleged vulnerabilities in the OSM portal - have emerged as prominent faces of a broader student backlash over this year's examination controversies, including the now-cancelled NEET-UG 2026 exam, which is set for a June 21 re-test following a paper leak.