Sticking to its charges despite the Bharatiya Janata Party going public with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degrees and marksheets, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday alleged that the documents produced by Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley were ‘forged’, saying there were ‘glaring discrepancies’ in them.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, AAP leader Ashutosh said Modi’s name does not match in the BA marksheet and that of the MA degree and even claimed that there were discrepancies in the year of passing as well.
“Nakal ke liye bhi akal ki jarurat hai (One needs brain even to copy). The BA marksheet is dated 1978 while the degree is of the year 1979. His name in the BA marksheet is Narendra Kumar Damodardas Modi while in Masters degree, it is Narendra Damoderdas Modi,” said the AAP leader.
He said there were discrepancies in the PM’s name even at the BA level with it being recorded as ‘Narendra Kumar Damodardas Modi’ in one of the marksheets while it was spelt as ‘Narendra Damoderdas Modi’ in the degree certificate.
Even in BA marksheets, another AAP leader Dilip Pandey said, surname is spelt ‘Modi’ in one case while it changes to ‘Mody’ in another.
Ashutosh said striking off the part of one’s name was not possible without an affidavit and asked Jaitley and Shah to produce copy of the affidavit.
“His MA degree says he had done his post-graduation in ‘enture political science’. Is that even possible? There are a lot of glaring discrepancies in his degrees and masters’ degree,” said Ashutosh.
The AAP leader also said Modi had failed once while doing the BA degree.
“We have proved that the degrees are forged. Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley and Modi should apologise for this forgery which is a crime,” Ashutosh added.
He said he has filed Right to Information applications seeking copies of enrolment register and convocation register for PM's degree from DelhiUniversity.
He also asked the BJP leaders to come with the AAP leaders to DelhiUniversity and jointly check out the facts about Modi’s educational documents there.
Earlier in the day, BJP chief Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley displayed Modi’s degrees during a press conference and demanded an apology from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing him of defaming the prime minister.
Last week, the Delhi chief minister had said that he can assert with ‘full responsibility’ that Delhi University’s records have no mention of ‘Narendra Damodardas Modi’ and that one ‘Narendra Kumar Mahavir Prasad Modi’ from Alwar had taken admission in 1975.
Kejriwal had said the issue was not whether the PM was ‘10th pass or 12th pass’ but that he has furnished ‘fake’ certificates and ‘cheated’ the people of the country.
Jaitley said there cannot be a bigger example of an ‘aam aadmi’ than Modi as despite being in public life, he would travel from Gujarat to Delhi in the 70s to take BA examination as an external student.
“I knew this because I was a student union leader in DelhiUniversity then as he would stay in ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parsihad) office in 33, Bungalow Road,” he added.
Taking a jibe at the AAP, he said it should have rather praised Modi for his educational achievements as a common man for whom it is supposed to speak.
“Without checking up any fact, AAP levelled such allegations. It is public discourse at its lowest level,” he said.
Asked whether a case of defamation would be filed against Kejriwal, Shah ruled it out.
He also attacked Congress’ Manish Tewari and Janata Dal-United leader K C Tyagi for supporting Kejriwal on the issue.
“The Congress should first clear the air on the AgustaWestland issue,” he said.
Asked to comment on the chief information commissioner order over the issue, Shah refused to react saying it was a legal issue whether the order was wrong or right.
