The Congress has lied about its former president and disqualified Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi being a visiting fellow at the prestigious Cambridge University, a set of documents in possession of The New Indian has revealed.
On Friday, Cambridge University confirmed over an email that Rahul is not Visiting Fellow at the Cambridge Judge Business School. The revelation is expected to embarrass Congress, which is already facing humiliation over Rahul’s disqualification from Parliament following his conviction by the Surat court.
“We confirm this letter is authentic. We assume that you will not publish the name of the individual as part of your story, whose role is to answer FOI requests in line with UK legislation, and the letter is in no way a ‘personal’ reply from her,” said Cambridge University’s response.
Rahul Gandhi holds the title of Honorary non-visiting Fellow at the Cambridge Judge Business School, not Visiting Fellow, as the Congress party had previously claimed in tweets shared on February 16 and March 2 – the day when Rahul Gandhi delivered his speech criticizing Indian democracy at the Cambridge Judge Business School.
According to documents shared with us by a UK-based source who had filed an application under the Freedom of Information Act asking about Rahul’s status as a Cambridge Fellow and the eligibility criterion, fellows must “make a significant general contribution or teach all, or a substantial part, of a course or an executive education programme.”
Rahul does not meet any of these requirements, thus, making him ineligible to be a Visiting Fellow. An honorary title can be given to any public figure.
During his visit to the UK in February-March, the Congress had shown Rahul as a Fellow (Finance) at Cambridge. However, an alumnus of the University, who wished to stay anonymous has now pointed out that “Out of the 16 Honorary Non-Visiting Fellows in Finance, Rahul Gandhi is the only one who has absolutely no relevant qualifications or experience in the field of finance.”
Here are the profiles of some of the other people in the same position that Rahul Gandhi has been offered:
Cambridge Judge Business School defines a fellow (whether honorary or not) as someone who makes a significant contribution to the Business School – whether that be through collaborative research with Cambridge Judge faculty, teaching or an executive education programme.
“Rahul Gandhi in no specific measure has any “significant general contribution” in the field of finance. It is even farcical to attempt to defend him on this count by anyone, least of all, University of Cambridge. So, the only criteria for his appointment as a fellow of finance is that he teaches a “substantial part” of a finance course. Instead, Rahul Gandhi began and centered most of his lecture around the Bharat Jodo Yatra. It is outrageous, to think that he holds an academic position in finance and ends up discussing his failing political project in India,” said the alumnus.
“It was a clear bluff by both Congress and Rahul to hoodwink the Indian masses that he was holding the event at the prestigious institution at their invitation. The truth is neither he is a fellow in Finance, nor Cambridge has ever extended any such invitation to him,” he added.
“This is called the Gandhi privilege that when you don’t attend a University or a college, you can still tom tom it as a degree and use phony credentials to build a case against own country and attempt to topple an elected government,” he added.
On March 26, Priyanka Gandhi made similar misleading claims about her brother’s academic credentials, stating that despite being mocked as Pappu by the BJP, he has degrees from top institutions like Harvard and Cambridge. Priyanka claimed that her brother has an M.phil in Economics from Cambridge. “Duniya ke sabse do bade siksha ke sansthan hai, woh waha se padhke aaye hai. Harvard aur Cambridge ki unki degree hai. Cambridge se unhe Economics me Masters Degree … M.phil degree unko mili hai (Rahul Gandhi has studied from two of the most prestigious institutions in the world – Harvard and Cambridge. He has an M.phil in Economics from cambridge).” However, as per Rahul’s election affidavit, he has an M.phil in Development Studies from Trinity College, Cambridge, and not Economics.
Several independent politicians in India have questioned the authenticity of Rahul’s illustrious academic background, whether completion of Bachelor’s from St.Stephen’s, Post Graduate and doctorate degrees from Harvard and Cambridge or even his schooling from the venerated Doon school.
In fact, after Priyanka’s sweeping statement, BJP’s national IT cell chief Amit Malviya had quickly contested her claim, highlighting that Rahul’s election affidavits have never mentioned these academic credentials, raising a stink on whether he really attended these institutions. “None of Rahul Gandhi’s election affidavits mention a degree from Harvard. Priyanka Vadra, just like her disqualified brother, is lying. Is there anything about the family that is not fake?” he said.
It’s at the Judge Business School inside Cambridge University that Rahul had kicked a row, while praising China and US before India.
“The way the Americans value individual liberty, the Chinese value harmony. Individual liberty is not central to China’s idea, their idea is much more about society being in harmony because they have had massive tremors..,,” Rahul had said on March 2 at CU.
BJP had then hit back at Rahul for his seemingly praiseworthy comments of China, with BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya saying, “Rahul Gandhi, in a brazen manner, justifies China’s authoritarianism.”