New Delhi | The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of pursuing a political agenda in implementing the three-language formula in the CBSE curriculum and said Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has shown himself to be a "political hack with zero integrity" who must resign.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that aside from the CBSE's "incompetent, hasty" implementation of its OSM system and the corruption in its tender process, the CBSE has also been in the news for its arbitrary implementation of three-language formula in Grade 9 and 10.
"What's the backstory to this move? In December 2025, the CBSE's Governing Body met for its semi-annual meeting. The CBSE Governing Body specifically and unequivocally ratified its Curriculum Committee's recommendation that CBSE should continue with its existing scheme of studies 'especially with regards to language' until the release of graded textbooks of languages by NCERT," Ramesh said on X.
The chairman and secretary of CBSE -- now transferred out -- attached their signatures to this decision, he pointed out.
In May 2026, the CBSE issued a circular asking schools to add a third language to Grade 9 and 10 curriculum from July 1, 2026, and asked schools to use the NCERT's Grade 6 textbooks to teach the third language to their 9th grade students, Ramesh said.
"What changed in the last six months? The NCERT has not released any third language textbooks for Grade 9 and 10," the Congress general secretary in-charge communications said.
"The CBSE Chairman and Secretary who signed this decision continued to hold office at this point. Despite that, the CBSE effectively overruled the recommendation of its Curriculum Committee even after it was ratified by its own Governing Body," Ramesh said.
Why and on whose orders did the CBSE commit this U-turn, he asked.
There is zero academic rationale for this move, which is throwing academic calendars and school planning into chaos and disrupting the academic futures of lakhs of students, Ramesh said.
"The only agenda here is clearly political. Clearly, the Education Ministry and its autonomous bodies like CBSE operate on the whims and political agendas of the Modi Government rather than on advice from educationists in its own bodies," the Congress leader said.
But when it comes to accountability, it is officials like the CBSE chairperson and secretary who are transferred out while their political boss in the Pradhan Mantri's Cabinet is protected, Ramesh said.
"The Mantri Pradhan, who has shown himself to be a political hack with zero integrity and zero respect for academic expertise, must resign," he asserted.
The Congress on Wednesday had launched a scathing attack on Education Minister Pradhan over the CBSE OSM row, saying the Mantri Pradhan is "shamelessly digging" his heels in office and asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is insistent on protecting him despite evidence of his ministry's "incompetence and corruption".
Ramesh had alleged that the "Mantri Pradhan" runs a "corrupt, incompetent, and callous" Ministry of Education.
The Congress has dubbed the government's move to shunt out two top CBSE officials following the on-screen marking system row as an eyewash and cover-up, with Rahul Gandhi demanding that Pradhan be sacked and an independent judicial inquiry be ordered immediately.
CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta were shunted out of the national educational board in the wake of the alleged irregularities in the digital evaluation system for the Class 12 examination process, officials said.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been engulfed in a controversy after some Class 12 students alleged that the scanned copies of their answer sheets uploaded by the board did not match their handwriting, raising concerns over possible answer-sheet mismatch in the OSM system.
The Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday, through a memorandum, announced the constitution of a one-member committee to inquire into matters relating to the procurement of services for the OSM system by the CBSE.
The committee will be chaired by S Radha Chauhan, chairperson, Capacity Building Commission, it said.
