Politics is the only field where fake degrees can lead you to the post of Human Resource Development minister, ironically. In other fields, fake degree can lead to banishment and jail-time as well.
Former HRD minister Smriti Irani revealed in her poll affidavit that she was not a graduate. However, in her affidavit for 2014 polls, Irani had reportedly said that she had graduated from Delhi University’s School of Open Learning with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1994. Opposition found a weak spot and they kept attacking BJP over her fake degree.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley came to her defence and said the academic credentials of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, too, were the subject of debate. He said that Rahul Gandhi completed his MPhil without completing his post-graduation.
“One day the focus (of Congress campaign) would be on the BJP candidate’s educational qualification, fully forgetting that a public audit of Rahul Gandhi’s academic credentials may leave a lot to be answered. After all, he got an MPhil without a Master’s degree,” Jaitley said in a Facebook blog titled ‘India’s Opposition is on a Rent a Cause Campaign’.
In 2009, amid a row over Gandhi’s foreign degrees, the University of Cambridge had said the Congress leader was a student of Trinity College and was awarded an M.Phil in Development Studies in 1995.
Fake degree for politicians controversy is not new. Smriti Irani and Rahul Gandhi are not the only high profile politicians surrounded by this controversy. Our own PM Modi was allegedly having a fake degree in ‘Entire Political Science’ from Delhi University. There are numerous discrepancies in the records.
The point is that the politicians are setting a very notorious image in the youth of our nation. This fake degree scandal would definitely bring international shame to our country. What can one expect in that country where the law-makers are not following their own laws? Think about it.
