When Vedant Srivastava, a student, received his CBSE physics answer sheets through the re-evaluation process, he found the sheets uploaded by the board were not his. 

His concern was part of a larger crisis: students and parents across the country had spent days battling login failures, inaccessible portals, and wildly fluctuating fees on the revaluation portal. 

However, Ashok Shrivastav, journalist and primetime host at state-funded Doordarshan News, had a different angle.

Shrivastav tweeted screenshots from Vedant’s social media profile – a profile which the student’s family says was created specifically to raise a grievance about a board exam – and asked: “Did Pakistanis also appear for the CBSE exam?” The screenshot showed the X account was based in South Asia.

The tweet spread. And a student already dealing with an institutional failure was now fielding accusations that he was Pakistani. 

The scanned copies of evaluated answer sheets have drawn some of the sharpest complaints. Students and parents posted screenshots showing pages that were blurred, faded or barely legible – in some cases, too unclear to make out basic text, numbers or symbols, let alone check for marking errors. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has sought a detailed report from CBSE. The Congress and sections of social media have called for his resignation.

Clarifications from Shrivastav and Vedant’s family

Vedant’s brother Siddhant stepped in to clarify. The account’s location appeared outside India due to a technical glitch, he said. He also dismissed the allegations in an ABP News interview.

“I am the brother of Vedant and I am appalled by seeing how people are calling us Pakistani. yes Vedant did not had twitter because he was busy studying instead of tweeting and we made this account for tweeting his genuine issues because we could not apply for reevaluation,” he wrote on X.

Shrivastav’s tweet was not available on his X account at the time of writing this report. But on Monday, he posted a clarification.

“I have just received information confirming that the individual named Vedant is, in fact, a student. However, a satisfactory explanation as to why the location displayed on his tweets appears to be outside of India is still pending. Nevertheless, since @vineetJindal19 is a friend and a trustworthy individual, I am confident that his information is accurate. Upon receiving this correct information, I am deleting my previous tweet; I also wish to offer my apologies to Vedant and his family for the erroneous information that was circulated regarding them. That said, I remain hopeful that obtaining accurate details regarding the account's location will help bring further clarity to this matter.”

Shrivastav confirms Vedant is a student. He apologises. And then, in the same breath, says he still wants “accurate details regarding the account’s location” for “further clarity”.

The friend Shrivastav credits for setting him straight, advocate Vineet Jindal, seemed to be clearer.

“I feel that we should no longer discuss Vedant and his family. Having spoken with Vedant’s brother, I have learned that the family – who were already distressed – have become even more troubled by everything that has been circulating on social media. I humbly request you all not to cause any further distress to Vedant and his family at this time. Please allow the young man to focus on working on his results.”

Meanwhile, the family Shrivastav targeted had gone from dealing with a CBSE failure to managing a social media pile-on while their son tried to figure out what to do about his results. There was backlash, with some social media users accusing Shrivastav of deliberately spreading misinformation and of harassing a minor.

None of this is entirely surprising to anyone who has watched Do Took, Shrivastav’s primetime show on DD News. Newslaundry had tracked over 40 segments of the programme in 2024, following the Lok Sabha elections, to examine whether critical public issues – corruption, unemployment, education, inflation, crimes against women and minorities – received adequate coverage. They did not. The majority of segments were anti-opposition, followed by content classified as misinformation and disinformation, and communal polarisation.

At Doordarshan, it appears, this passes for journalism paid for by our taxes. 

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