Rahul supports online petition to remove Jayant Sinha's Harvard alumni status

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday urged his followers to support an online petition demanding Union Minister Jayant Sinha's Harvard Business School alumni status to be removed.

Last week, a photograph went viral on social media in which Jayant Sinha was seen felicitating eight men convicted for lynching.

The petition on Change.org has been started by political observer Prateek Kanwal, who himself is an alumni of the Harvard University.

"If the sight of a highly educated MP and Central Minister, Jayant Sinha, garlanding and honouring criminals convicted of lynching an innocent man, fills you with disgust, click on the link and support this petition," Rahul tweeted alongside a link to the site.

Till now, 960 people have signed the petition on the site.

Kanwal has also attached a copy of the letter to the President of Harvard University.

"Sinha's callous and insensitive actions have generated tremendous anger in India and have been widely reported in newspapers, on television news channels, social media and other digital platforms. Unfortunately, most media reports allude to the fact that he is an alumnus of Harvard University. Which is our reason for writing to you - to draw your attention to the fact that the Harvard's name is being sullied in India, on account of its association with Mr Sinha," Kanwal wrote.

Jayant Sinha's father Yashwant Sinha has also expressed his disapproval on his son's actions.

"Earlier I was the Nalayak Baap of a Layak Beta. Now the roles are reversed. That is Twitter. I do not approve of my son's action. But I know even this will lead to further abuse. You can never win," he wrote on Twitter.