BJP distorting Congress stand on Smriti Irani, says Singhvi

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Wednesday clarified that his party's stand is not to vilify someone personally on a person having or not having educational qualification, and instead, charged the BJP with a distortion of facts.

Commenting on the controversy generated by his party colleague Ajay Makan's Tweet, Singhvi said: "We are not making any personal comments and that is not our object at all. There are two issues. Today, the second issue is more important than the first. The first is a clear misstatement, distortion in her 2014 affidavit, which is unfortunately a serious criminal offence, it has electoral consequences."

"The misstatement is simple. In the 2004 affidavit, she has clearly claimed to be a B.A. graduate of 1996. In the 2014 affidavit, it is specified that she has only completed part one, that is the first year, of her bachelor degree in Commerce, and that is not a full degree. Both cannot be true, and that is the main issue, and not a personal issue," he told media here.

"The second issue is we haven't raised, and it is a distortion by the BJP about people having or not having educational qualifications. Whether one is fifth, eight grade pass or PhD or M.A. You will know that there are other ministers in the government whose qualification is of having sixth and eighth grade pass. What we have said is the appropriateness context of this ministry matching with these optics," Singhvi further added.

Congress leader Ajay Maken had stated that the Union Human Resource Development minister Smriti Irani was 'not even a graduate'. He tweeted on social networking site twitter saying, "What a Cabinet of Modi? HRD Minister (Looking after Education) Smriti Irani is not even a graduate! Look at her affidavit at ECI site pg 11.