Exclusive | CBSE whistleblower's message for CJP's Abhijeet Dipke: 'Internet activism fine, but…'

SArthak Sidhant, single of the troika known CBSE-OSM whistleblowers, has advised " roach Janta company" founding father Abhijeet Dipke to ensure the movement is driven by a genuine cause rather than what he described as “internet attention”. He said student-led campaigns must translate outrage into meaningful action.In an exclusive interview with HT, Sarthak Sidhant spoke about the viral online movement that started as a satirical response to Chief Justice of India's recent remarks, and said he would “not get political”, but stressed that any party or campaign formed by students should have "an actual cause"."Like I did some investigation, Nisarg did some investigation - we put it out to help students," he said, drawing a distinction between activism stemming from research and social media-driven trends. Sidhant also mentioned Vedant Shrivastava in his remarks.Teenagers Sidhant, Vedant and “ethical hacker” Nisarga Adhikary emerged as key figures who flagged issues with CBSE's OSM evaluation system after detecting discrepancies Class 12 marksheets — becoming the face 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.Sidhant cautioned against limiting activism to online spaces, saying "internet activism is okay", but "sitting on their back seats and not doing anything is not". He added that he would not support a movement only aimed at gaining traction online.“Yes, internet activism is okay. What I did, what Nisarg did, what Vedant did was internet activism in general. But I would say they are sitting on their back seats and if they're not doing anything, they're not actively participating in anything, that is a bad thing,” Sidhant said.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.