Five Ministers and Their Degrees of Separation

Is it raining fake degrees? Check out these five ministers and their degrees of separation.

Are educational qualifications at all the criteria to becoming parliamentarians?

An article, published by India TV recently, discloses how dismal the educational qualifications of MPs of the 16th Lok Sabha are. The latter in fact consists of a significant number of members – at least 10% – who have not even matriculated (aka, studied beyond the ninth standard).

Our Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Uma Bharti, unfortunately, is a glaring example. Bharti has only studied till Class VI.

According to the Constitution of India, an MP Needs to be:

(a) A citizen of India, who makes and subscribes before some person authorised in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule;

(b) In the case of a seat in the Council of States not less than thirty years of age and in the case of a seat in the House of the People, not less than twenty-five years of age; and

(c) Possesses such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament.

So, if any angootha chhaap (illiterate) can become a Member of Parliament, we only come back to the above question – why do Indian netas need to fake university degrees if there is no clear criterion to become a parliamentarian?

Jitender Singh Tomar and Smriti Irani may be remembered most notoriously for the soup they landed in, when they were accused of forging academic records.

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce its order on a complaint against Union HRD Minister on June 23, 2015 for allegedly giving “false” information about her educational qualification, in affidavits filed with the Election Commission.

In that vein, let’s take a look at some politicians who forged their academic degrees. For, in the world of Indian politics, it is clearly raining fake degrees.

Smriti Irani

Smriti Irani is the reigning queen of controversies when it comes to education. In her 2004 election affidavit, Irani had declared that she had a Bachelor of Arts degree from Delhi University (School of Correspondence). In the 2014 elections, however, Irani claimed that she had graduated a Bachelor of Commerce Part-1, from the School of Open Learning (Correspondence), University of Delhi in 1994. But how could desi degrees be enough for the ‘over-qualified’ minister? Irani also a phoren degree to her list of credentials – and from Yale no less! Not too shabby for Mrs Irani.

Jitender Singh Tomar

Aah, life’s little ironies. The Delhi Law Minister was arrested for submitting fake academic records! Tomar was booked under IPC section 471 for cheating, forgery and acquiring a job on a fake degree. According to Delhi police statements, a team of officers that went to Awadh University to verify his degree came back with the sad pronouncement that the degree was a fake. Mr Tomar, you’ve clearly been living a life of fiction.

Mamata Banerjee

We didn’t know our painter didi could paint such a picturesque doctoral degree for herself. The Chief Minister of West Bengal and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has claimed to have a degree from the East Georgia University. But here’s the whopper: not only is the degree a fake, no university by any such name exists! Time to draw something new?

Surender Singh

AAP ka toh bura haal hai. The Delhi High Court on a petition filed by BJP leader Karan Singh Tanwar, issued a notice to APP MLA Surender Singh for allegedly giving false information about his educational qualifications in the election affidavit. Tanwar’s allegations are based on an RTI reply received from Sikkim University which said that it did not have any record of a student named Surender Singh.

As per the academic record of the year 2014-15 and all the past academic years, there is no student by the name Surender Singh.
– RTI reply from Sikkim University

Is there anyone in APP apart from Arvind Kejriwal, who has a legitimate qualification?

Late Gopinath Munde

In a signed affidavit submitted by then Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde for the Lok Sabha elections 2014, Munde claims that he obtained his Bachelor’s degree from New Law College, Pune in 1976. Good for him, but there’s a teeny-tiny problem. The college was only established in 1978. Munde made vociferous claims later that the degree had been issued by Pune University and not the college.