After AAP’s former minister, Jitender Singh Tomar was arrested for a fake law degree, now comes the turn of BJP’s Minister, Mrs. Smriti Irani who is the HRD Minister of India. Bhartiya Janata Party was already in speculation with regards to involvement of Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of External Affairs and Vasundhara Raje, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan for helping Lalit Modi who was removed from his president ship of Rajasthan Cricket Association on grounds of misconduct. Added to their misery was the cognizance taken by a Trial Court of Delhi, of the allegation that Smriti Irani, who claims to have a degree from Yale University, has been giving different and rather conflicting information about her educational qualifications.
The complaint against the BJP leader was filed by a freelance writer Ahmed Khan, who had alleged that Irani had given inconsistent details about her degrees in affidavits submitted to Election Commission. Mr. Khan said, “It’s not a problem to be less educated or be uneducated… but it’s a big issue that she is not being honest despite being the Human Resources Development Minister.”
Despite certain technical objections like delay in filing complaint, Metropolitan magistrate Akash Jain stated in an order, “The arguments made by the complainant regarding maintainability of the plea hold merit.” On the other hand, BJP spokesperson regarded the issue as a mere typographical error which must be distinguished from a fake degree.
Now, the Delhi Court is all set to undertake the next hearing which shall take place on 28th August.
– By Roopali Mohan, 2nd Year, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, New Delhi.