PM’s degree authentic, says DU, but AAP refuses to buy it.
NEW DELHI – Delhi University said on Tuesday that the BA degree in political science conferred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 1979 was authentic and downplayed the discrepancy in names in the two marksheets made public by BJP on Monday, calling them “minor errors”. An official of the exam branch said such errors were common and “are rectified on request”.
This clarification from the university came even as an AAP team – including Ashutosh, Ashish Khetan, Sanjay Singh and Dilip Pandey – returned to DU to ‘inspect’ the genuineness of the degree. However, they were turned away by the university as they did not have an appointment with the vice-chancellor. They were asked to meet the VC at 3pm on Wednesday.
Claiming that the university has maintained a silence on the issue so far in order to “maintain privacy of any student”, registrar Tarun Das said, “We have checked our records and there can be no doubt over the validity of the certificates awarded to the PM. He cleared the examination in 1978 and was awarded the degree in 1979.”
AAP, which has said it will produce further proof on Wednesday to prove the degree is forged, said DU was lying, questioning why the varsity and BJP were speaking to the media and not to them despite the CIC having asked the institute to share details of the degrees with CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Ashutosh said the Emergency was clamped in 1975 when, as BJP chief Amit Shah and finance minister Arun Jaitley claimed on Monday, Modi stayed at the ABVP office while taking the exam. “By Modi’s own admission, he was underground during this period and was living in disguise as a Sikh. Did he write the exam under his real identity or in the guise of a Sikh?”
