The Congress on Tuesday highlighted controversies surrounding the academic qualifications of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an article on the party's official website.
The article, written in a mostly satirical tone, started by saying Modi has adopted the modus operandi of former US president Harry Truman, who said, “If you can't convince them, confuse them.”
The Congress's article stated it was “intriguing” that universities rushed to get injunctions to avoid providing information on Modi's qualifications, when sought by RTI applicants. Both Delhi University, where Modi did his bachelor's degree, and Gujarat University, where he obtained his master's degree, have consistently rejected RTI queries into Modi's academic details.
The Congress claimed the much-publicised display of Modi's college degrees by BJP president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in May 2016 had not laid to rest doubts about Modi's qualifications.
The Congress's article even refers to Modi's time at MN Science College in Visnagar, where he completed his 'pre-science', equivalent to 12th standard, noting no records exist of how he fared.
The Congress's article argued that clarity on Modi's academic qualifications was important as it was illegal for a PM to lie under oath. Moreover, the Congress argued the controversy highlighted efforts to curb the ambit of the Right to Information Act, given denial of requests.
Not surprisingly, the Congress promoted the article on Modi's qualifications with a stinging tweet: “PM Modi's degree in 'Entire Political Science' is so unique, that no other human being on the planet has it. Maybe it is from an alternate dimension.”