Rahul got M.Phil without Masters degree: Jaitley

Making a scathing attack on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi for questioning Smriti Irani's educational qualifications, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the party forgot that a public audit of Gandhi's academic credentials "may leave a lot to be answered" and alleged that the Congress President "got an M.Phil without a Masters degree".

"One day the focus would be on the BJP candidate's educational qualifications, fully forgetting that a public audit of Rahul Gandhi's academic credentials may leave a lot to be answered. After all, he got an M.Phil without a Masters degree," Jaitley said in Facebook.

His remarks come a day after BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, making a veiled reference to Gandhi, alleged that his "Cambridge certificate says his name is Raul Vinci and he read M.Phil and failed in National Economic Planning and Policy".

Swamy had also posted in Twitter a certificate from the Cambridge University which stated that Raul Vinci had scored 58 per cent in National Economy Planning and Policy while scoring 62.8 per cent overall. The certificate said 60 per cent was passing marks.

Swamy, who had earlier alleged that Rahul Gandhi had four passports including one in the name of Raul Vinci, claimed it was "Raul Vinci's certificate of failure".

Earlier, the Congress had complained to the poll panel against Smriti Irani submitting "contradictory affidavits" to the Election Commission on her educational qualifications.

--IANS

vv/nir