PM degree row: Modi passed MA in political science with 62.3% marks, says Gujarat University V-C

The row over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational qualifications took an interesting turn on Sunday, with Gujarat University Vice Chancellor MN Patel coming out in the open and claiming that the Prime Minister had passed his MA in political science with 62.3 percent marks. However, he reiterated that nobody has officially approached the university authorities requesting any information on the prime minister’s degree. “We will share the records if ordered to,” he told NDTV. [caption id=“attachment_2758616” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prime Minister Modi. PTI[/caption] According to an Ahmedabad Mirror report, Modi completed his degree in political science in 1983, as an external student, with subjects that included European Politics, Indian Political Analysis and Psychology of Politics. However, the university has no information on Modi’s undergraduate records. The report further states that the Prime Minister completed his pre-science from MN Science College, Visnagar. The storm over Modi’s educational qualification was fanned recently by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who wrote a letter to Information Commissioner M Shridhar Acharyulu accusing the Central Information Commission (CIC) of hiding information and urged it to reveal all the details pertaining to the prime minister’s academic credentials under the Right to information Act (RTI Act). “There are allegations that Narendra Modi does not have any degree. The people of the country want to know the truth. Despite that, you have refused to make records regarding his degree public. Why did you do this? This is wrong,” Kejriwal said in the letter. The AAP founder also claimed that he has no objection to information related to him being made public by the CIC. Consequently, the commission, treated his letter as an RTI application, and directed the Delhi and Gujarat universities to give proper responses on the issue. “The Commission directs the CPIOs of Delhi University and Gujarat University to make best possible search for the information regarding degrees in the name of “Mr Narendra Damodar Modi” in the year 1978 (Graduation in DU) and 1983 (Post Graduation in GU) and provide it to the appellant Mr Kejriwal as soon as possible.”, stated the directive from the CIC. The issue was also raised by the Congress, with party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala saying, “If the Prime Minister himself is seeking to hide his educational qualifications, then how could common man have the confidence to use the RTI as a tool to fight corruption.” While filing his election affidavit during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Modi mentioned that he had passed BA in the year 1978. He later completed his MA in political science from Gujarat University in 1983, as per a report in The Indian Express. With inputs from PTI