In an exclusive interview, 17-year-old student and prominent Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) whistleblower Sarthak Sidhant has offered critical advice to Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the “Cockroach Janta Party.” Sidhant emphasized that student-led campaigns must be anchored in genuine causes rather than merely chasing social media traction.
While stating he wishes to remain non-political, the teenager stressed the vital distinction between research-driven activism and short-lived internet trends.
1. Action vs. Armchair Activism
Sidhant cautioned against limiting advocacy to the safety of online spaces, distinguishing his own rigorous investigative work from passive scrolling.
“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.” — Sarthak Sidhant
He firmly noted that he would not support any movement whose sole objective is to gain social media traction without translating that momentum into structural change.
2. The Core Trio Driving the Backlash
Sidhant is one of three teenagers who have recently become the face of a sweeping national student revolt against ongoing examination system failures:
Their collective revelations have gained massive momentum following a drop in overall CBSE pass percentages and widespread student complaints regarding mixed-up or blurred answer sheets under the board’s new On-Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation system. The backlash expands across wider examination systems, coinciding with the recent cancellation and ordered June 21 re-test of the NEET-UG 2026 medical entrance exam following a paper leak.
3. The “Coempt” Tender Discrepancies
Sidhant’s primary contribution came through deep analysis published on his personal website, charting how public institutions allegedly reshape regulations behind closed doors.
His blog post, titled ‘How CBSE rewrote rules to favour Coempt EduTeck’, alleges that the examination board systematically modified technical barriers and operational rules across three consecutive tender rounds to benefit Hyderabad-based vendor Coempt EduTeck Private Limited:
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Tender 1 (Feb 2025): Cancelled without a successful bidder.
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Tender 2 (May 2025): Attracted four bids; all failed the technical evaluation round.
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Tender 3 (Aug 2025): Attracted final bids from Rankguru, TCS, and Coempt. The contract was ultimately awarded to Coempt after Rankguru failed the technical stage.
While both CBSE and Coempt EduTeck have denied any wrongdoing, Sidhant was formally called to depose and present his timeline of discrepancies directly before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports on June 2, 2026.
