Maharashtra BJP struggles to defend ministers accused of possessing fake degrees

Ahead of monsoon session, Opposition sharpens knives against Tawde & Lonikar for allegedly faking academic credentials

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s central leadership is busy giving a   clean chit to Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje in the Lalit Modi controversy, its Maharashtra unit is struggling to defend state Education Minister Vinod Tawde and Water Supply & Sanitation Minister Babanrao Lonikar in the fake degree controversy.

Tawde, a former activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), is under the scanner for allegedly mentioning BE (electronics) in his election affidavit. Lonikar, who comes from the under-developed Marathwada region, too, has been accused of forging his academic credentials.

Opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have jointly demanded the duo’s resignation questioning the authenticity of their graduation degrees.

The parties have stepped up attack against the state government and the two ministers ahead of the monsoon session slated to begin from July 12.

Tawde, also part of the BJP’s five-member core committee and in the running for the chief minister’s post, has been attacked by former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. “What kind of example does the state education minister want to put before the students of Maharashtra?” Chavan is said to have asked.

But putting paid to the Opposition blather, state BJP spokesperson Kanta Nalawade told Business Standard, “It is a conspiracy hatched by the Opposition parties against Tawde and Lonikar in particular and the state government at large. Tawde has already taken a slew of initiatives to improve the education system and it may be an attempt to destabilise him.”

Lonikar, Nalawade said, has also put up his argument. Nalawade, however, has ruled out the Opposition’s demand for the resignation s  of Tawde and Lonikar.

Tawde, in his defence, said he had done nothing wrong and that he was proud of his alma mater, Dyaneshwar Vidyapeeth, in Pune where he completed his engineering course. The Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chief Sanjay Nirupam accused Tawde of possessing a fake engineering degree from an unrecognised university not affiliated to either the University Grants Commission or All India Council for Technical Education. Chavan took a sideswipe at Tawde saying it took him five years to get a bachelors in engineering but just one month to get his degree.

As far as Lonikar is concerned, the minister in his affidavits of 2004 and 2009 mentioned his qualification as FYBA from Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in 1991. However, the 2014 election affidavit mentions him having studied till Std V from Zilla Parishad School at Loni (Khurd) in Partur Tehsil of Parbhani district in 1973.

The Aam Aadmi Party dared the Devendra Fadnavi-led BJP government to arrest Lonikar for allegedly holding a fake degree. Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant led a blistering attack against Lonikar terming him Maharashtra’s Jitender Tomar and demanded he should be sacked from the state Cabinet.