From Yale to conflicting degrees: Why Smriti Irani's educational history is such a mystery

Guess who -err- what is trending on Twitter again? #SmritiMadamDegreeDikhao - marking the return of our HRD minister's nightmare from last year. The lull in the fake degree row has proved to be momentary as a Delhi Court on Saturday, asked the Election Commission and Delhi University to come clean about Irani's conflicting affidavits regarding her education.

Now, if an average Indian citizen wanted to know what the uproar is all about (because, let's face it, since when was education a pre-requisite for our politicians?), the first step would be a Google search.

Is she a BA graduate or a college dropout?

A look at the trusty Wikipedia page on Smriti Irani shows a rather confusing "early life and educational qualifications" section which reveals that she had filed conflicting affidavits regarding her education qualifications for the 2004, 2011 and 2014 elections.

So she could either be a Bachelor of Arts or a B.Com (Part I) graduate from DU. But clearly, not both.

The Yale confusion

As the fake degree noose tightened around Irani's neck, she began to face flak for everything that was wrong with education in the country. To counter all the attacks of being highly under-educated to handle the HRD ministry, the spirited Irani produced "a degree from the prestigious Yale University.

Yep, here is how Ms. Irani responded to a question at the India Today Women Summit in August 2014, "In that kitty of mine where people call me 'anpad' (illiterate) I do have a degree from Yale University as well which I can bring out and show how Yale celebrated my leadership capacities."

Sad that she forgot to mention such an impressive part of her portfolio in the affidavits, right? Perhaps that was because the said "degree" was actually a certificate for a crash course at Yale.

She was part of a group of MPs who were tutored at Yale in June 2013, about "elections in India, the prospects for Afghanistan and Pakistan after the US military withdrawal in 2014, the implications of political and economic transitions in China."

How did the matter reach the Court?

More Twitter wrath followed. But this time, it wasn't just about social media's reaction to her statement. Finally, someone (freelance writer Ahmer Khan) did get suspicious enough to bring the issue of conflicting degrees in her affidavits to the notice of the Court. And on 24 June, Irani woke up to the court taking cognizance of his complaint.

However, there is a silver lining for Madam Irani. The Court rejected the part of Khan's appeal to CBSE for producing the minister Class 10 and 12 records.