The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has begun a ‘show your degree’ campaign and urged BJP politicians to do the same.
Delhi education minister Atishi, began the campaign a week after the Gujarat High Court fined Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal Rs 25,000 for requesting details of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degrees when the information was already available.
“We’re launching a campaign today. Every day, your leaders will demonstrate their degree to you. I have a BA from Delhi University as well as two Master’s degrees from Oxford. They’re all original,” Atishi told reporters in Delhi on Sunday.
“I want to ask all leaders, especially BJP leaders, to show their degrees,” she added, adding that AAP cadre will do so as part of the campaign.
The latest high court judgement heightened the debate surrounding the AAP’s aggressive campaign emphasising details on PM Modi’s degrees. The party has put up posters in numerous cities criticising Prime Minister Modi.
In response to Kejriwal’s Right to Information (RTI) request in 2016, the then-Central Information Commission M Sridhar Acharyulu directed the Prime Minister’s Office, Gujarat University, and Delhi University to provide information on PM Modi’s graduation and postgraduate degrees.
The Gujarat University swiftly posted PM Modi’s degree on its website, but it also disputed the Information Commission’s ruling on principle.
The ruling BJP distributed copies of PM Modi’s degrees, which it said were a BA from Delhi University and an MA in Political Science from Gujarat University. Kejriwal claimed the materials included ‘glaring discrepancies.’
Tushar Mehta, the government’s lawyer before the Gujarat High Court, argued that the two institutions should not be forced to reveal the information. “In a democracy, it makes no difference whether the individual holding the post has a degree or is illiterate. Furthermore, there is no public interest in this matter. “Even his privacy is jeopardized,” the senior government lawyer stated, stressing that PM Modi’s degrees had no influence on his work.
Kejriwal’s counsel said that educational criteria were included on election candidature papers and that the question was legal. “We are requesting a degree certificate, not his mark sheet,” said AAP lawyer Percy Kavina at the Gujarat High Court.
