Doordarshan Anchor Ashok Shrivastav Calls Delhi CBSE Student Pakistani Over Exam Error Will Modi Take Action
Every year the announcement of CBSE Class 12 results creates immense pressure for millions of students across India. For Vedant Shrivastava a Delhi student the results turned into a nightmare due to a serious administrative error by CBSE and an unexpected public accusation by a senior journalist.
After checking his marksheet Vedant found an unusually low score in Physics. Confident in his preparation he applied for a scanned copy of his answer sheet on May 19 via the official CBSE re-evaluation portal. When the copy was uploaded on May 23 he was stunned to discover that the handwriting on the Physics paper belonged to someone else.
With no existing social media presence Vedant created a new account on X formerly Twitter and posted side-by-side comparisons of his actual handwriting and the mismatched answer sheet to highlight the issue.
What should have stayed a simple administrative matter quickly escalated into a national controversy when Doordarshan anchor Ashok Shrivastav got involved.
Because the account was newly created X displayed a default South Asia location tag instead of India. Ashok Shrivastav host of the prime-time show Do Took on the government-funded Doordarshan News screenshot the profile and posted it with a sarcastic caption questioning if Pakistani students were appearing for CBSE exams.
This post from a senior anchor of a national broadcaster triggered a huge wave of online abuse. Thousands of users trolled the teenager calling him anti-national and a Pakistani infiltrator causing significant mental distress to Vedant and his family.
The incident has raised serious questions about journalistic ethics and accountability especially since Doordarshan comes under the Modi government. Many citizens are now asking if the government will take action against the anchor for targeting a young student without proper verification.
Vedants elder brother Siddhant Shrivastava had to step forward and publicly clarify his brothers identity explaining that the account was created solely to seek CBSEs attention.
CBSE Admits Major Technical Glitch
On May 25 the Central Board of Secondary Education CBSE acknowledged the error. In an official communication the Joint Secretary confirmed that a wrong answer sheet was linked to Vedants roll number due to a technical issue in the new On-Screen Marking system. The board provided the correct Physics paper and assured a revised marksheet.
Facing heavy backlash Ashok Shrivastav later deleted his post and issued a public apology.