Dubai: India’s newly-appointed minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) has come under the scanner after it was reported that he had two degrees from an international university not recognised or registered.
Ramesh Pokhriyal was sworn in as the HRD minister in the second Modi government and soon a news report shed light on his two doctorate degrees that were received from a university in Sri Lanka.
According to a news report by Indian news website India Today, in the 90s, the Open International University (OIU) of Colombo conferred two doctorates to him for his contribution in literature and in the field of science. However, according to the report, OIU is neither registered as a foreign university nor as a domestic university in Sri Lanka, the university grants commission of Sri Lanka confirmed.
On social media, users found it surprising that the man in charge of promoting the level of education in the country had questionable credentials. Others also spoke about two dates of birth that conflicted in Pokhriyals’ records.
Tweep @ashoswai wrote: “India’s New Education Minister has two fake degrees from a Fake University in Sri Lanka! Over and above, he has two Dates of Birth.”
Pokhriyal, however, issued a statement on the date of birth controversy, clarifying that the difference was because of the dates being different according to the Hindy horoscope.
“This is generally the case with almost with everyone who has a Hindu horoscope where the date of birth is based on Hindu calendar. I have never bothered about it as I have never taken any undue or wrongful benefit of these different dates of birth,” he told India Today.
Tweeps, however, were disappointed that Pokhriyal was the second education minister with allegedly fake degrees, after Smriti Irani served as the HRD minister from 2014 to 2016. Irani’s official applications show conflicting information about her educational qualifications and she claims to have a degree from Yale University.
Twitter user @madtrijay added: “A not so educated but [someone] with very good experience in governance can run HRD ministry but definitely not a fake degree holder will be like mocking all the university goers.”
Other users questioned Pokhriyal’s record of making unscientific claims. He has been recorded as saying that astrology should take precedence over science and has made dubious claims about scientific advancements in ancient India. According to a 2014 report by Indian newspaper The Hindu, he said: “Science is a dwarf in front of astrology… Astrology is the biggest science. It is in fact above science. We should promote it. We speak about nuclear science today. But Sage Kanad [a scientist and philosopher in ancient India] conducted nuclear test 100,000 years ago.”
