Delhi University has sternly reacted at the Right to Information (RTI) activists, who filed intervention applications in PM Narendra Modi’s degree case. Using strong words, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the university in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday accused RTI activists Anjali Bharadwaj, Nikhil Dey and Amrita Johri of being “nothing but busybodies or meddlesome interlopers … surreptitiously trying to intervene in the present matter”.
The activists told the court that they wanted to prevent erroneous interpretation of the RTI Act through their application, The Wire reported.
The authenticity of PM’s BA degree from Delhi University and MA degree from the Gujarat University has been in question. Although both the universities released statements to justify Modi’s claim, they have refused to share the information to dispel suspicion over various discrepancies in the documents relating to his name, date of birth and his specialisation on a subject called “Entire Political Science”.
Later, Gujarat University’s Vice-Chancellor MN Patel had said, “Narendra Damodardas Modi passed his MA in Political Science in 1983 with first class, securing 499 out of 800 marks, which comes to 62.3 per cent as an external student.”
The Central Information Commission had asked Delhi University to allow inspection of records of all the students who had passed BA degree in 1978, the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to have cleared the examination, according to his election affidavit.
The CIC had directed DU “to facilitate inspection of relevant register where complete information about result of all students who passed Bachelor of Arts, in year 1978 along with roll number, names of the students, father’s name and marks obtained as available with the university and provide certified copy of the extract of relevant pages from the register, free of cost”.
Central Public Information Officer of the university had said that disclosure of such identification may lead to invasion of privacy.
According to a report in The Times of India, Delhi University Registrar Tarun Das had said last year, “We have checked our records and it has been authenticated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree is authentic. He cleared the examination in 1978 and was awarded the degree in 1979.”
The applicants, through the RTI, wanted to highlight the larger issues of widespread fraud, corruption, malpractices, cheating and misrepresentation about one’s qualifications.
The issue of 1978 DU degree records came up after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) questioned the PM’s degree, triggering a controversy.