Opposition parties today demanded the removal of HRD Minister Smriti Irani, saying she has no "moral, constitutional or legal" right to continue in her post after a Delhi court took cognisance of a complaint that she gave false information about her educational qualification.
"It is apparent that the country's education minister is lying about her own education. What will happen to the future of millions of children in the country. Irani has no moral, constitutional or legal right to continue in her post for even a day," said Congress's chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala.
He claimed that Irani had in 2004 submitted an election affidavit stating she had received a bachelor's degree in Arts in 1996 from Delhi University. But, in 2011, when she filed a Rajya Sabha nomination from Gujarat, she stated that she holds a B.Com degree of 1994 from DU, he added.
In 2014, in her nomination papers for the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, she had said she is a B.Com graduate of DU's School of Open Learning.
"After a court has prima facie found a cognisable case against her, we demand that Irani must resign forthwith or be dismissed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.
Surjewala said it was "unfortunate" that there are question marks over the educational degrees of both the HRD Minister and the Minister of State in the ministry under Modi government. MoS HRD, Ram Shankar Katheria, has been accused of marksheet forgery.
"How does Modi government propose to run education when the educational degrees of the education ministers themselves are under question. Naturally, under any investigation, DU comes under HRD ministry. Definitely as Education Minister, she will influence the conduct and course of investigation," he said.
A Delhi court today took cognisance of a complaint filed against Irani for allegedly giving false information about her educational qualification. Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain took cognisance of the complaint and fixed the matter for recording of pre-summoning evidence on August 28.
Drawing parallels with the case of former Delhi law minister Jitender Tomar, Aam Aadmi Party, too, demanded the removal of the HRD minister and said there cannot be two "yardsticks" in such matters.
