Manish Sisodia writes letter from jail questioning PM Modi’s educational qualifications
Jailed former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has written an open letter from Delhi’s Tihar prison questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational qualification while stressing the need for having an educated person to occupy the country’s top elected post.
This is the latest in a series of attacks by Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders on Modi over his education. The party has doubled down on its campaign over the matter even as the Gujarat high court last week set aside a 2016 order of the central information commissioner (CIC) asking information be provided to AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal about Modi’s university degrees under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The court allowed the Gujarat University’s appeal against the CIC’s order and also fined Kejriwal ₹25,000. The court’s verdict came after the AAP intensified its poster war targeting Modi. Posters asking whether the country needed an educated Prime Minister were put up in parts of Delhi on Thursday last.
AAP last month launched the ‘Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao (remove Modi, save nation)’ campaign.
The AAP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been at loggerheads over administrative control and governance of the national capital. Tensions between the two intensified in February following Sisodia’s arrest in connection with alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy.
Kejriwal on Friday posted Sisodia’s letter on Twitter, saying it is addressed to the nation while reiterating a less educated Prime Minister is dangerous for the country. He said Modi does not understand science and the importance of education and that 60,000 schools have been closed. He added it is necessary to have an educated Prime Minister for India’s progress.
Sisodia referred to the progress in science and technology globally and artificial intelligence. He added it was disheartening to listen to the Prime Minister talk about using the gas from drains for making tea. Sisodia said when the Prime Minister says that planes flying above the clouds can escape the radars, he becomes a laughingstock. “Children studying in schools and colleges make fun of him,” Sisodia wrote.
Sisodia, who was also the education minister before his arrest, said such remarks are dangerous for the country. “The whole world comes to know that the Prime Minister of India is poorly educated, and does not even have the basic knowledge of science,” Sisodia said. He questioned whether a less educated Prime Minister has the capacity to fulfil the dreams of the aspirational youth.
Sisodia said 60,000 government schools have been closed across the country when more should have been opened in line with the population increase. “If the quality of government schools had been raised, then people would have started pulling their children out of private schools and sending them to government schools as is now happening in Delhi.”
Sisodia said it shows that education is not the priority of the government. “How will the country progress when we do not provide good education to our children?” Sisodia said even for the posts of managers in a company, well-educated persons are required. “Should the manager of the country not be educated?”
The AAP has been trying to make inroads beyond its strongholds of Delhi and Punjab, where it is in power, on the back of the work it says it has done to fix the educational and health care systems.
Delhi BJP spokesman Praveen Shankar Kapoor hit back saying India has progressed more under Modi in the last eight years than during Congress’ decades-old rule. “The corruption and scams of the AAP government have come out in the open and Sisodia is in jail for the excise scam.”
He added the AAP has been rattled since the excise scam was exposed. “They are talking nonsense since then to divert attention from the scams. However hard Kejriwal tries to divert attention, he will also go to jail in the excise case because all the money from the scam was grabbed by him.”