Modi degree row: War of media conferences ensues between BJP, AAP

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday put up a strong defence of PM Narendra Modi in the controversy over his alleged fake degrees, and demanded that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal apologise to the country. The seriousness with which the BJP has taken this issue can be gauged by the fact that two top-rung leaders — Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley — addressed a media conference to defend the prime minister. While stating that Modi got a BA degree from the Delhi University and an MA in political science from the Gujarat University, Shah said, “Kejriwal has damaged the reputation of India in front of the world.” “I want to request the media not to put baseless allegations in front of the people,” Shah said. [caption id=“attachment_2771898” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi. File photo. AFP[/caption] Jaitley also hit out at the AAP supremo, saying, “Without checking any facts, it is public discourse at its lowest level. This comes from a political party that has several MLAs who are being prosecuted for fake degrees.” Earlier, Kejriwal 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). Consequently, the commission, treated his letter as an RTI application, and directed the Delhi and Gujarat universities to give proper responses on the issue. On 4 May, three AAP leaders alleged that the DU refused to share details regarding Modi’s BA degree and told them to approach the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) instead. 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 the common man have the confidence to use the RTI as a tool to fight corruption.” However, earlier this month, Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor MN Patel said that Modi had indeed passed MA in political science with 62.3 percent marks. Earlier, the Delhi University declined to give information related to Modi’s BA degree despite RTI requests.