In yet another rejection, the Gujarat chief minister’s office has turned down an RTI request asking for the proof of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degrees.
While responding to the RTI request in Gujarati, Yogesh B Dave in the Gujarat chief minister’s office said, ” You’ve asked for the photo copies of educational qualifications of the former chief minister of Gujarat (Narendra Modi) and the current CM 9Anandiben Patel). As per the RTI act 2005 8(1), this information is related to personal life of both the post holders. This information is not related to any public interest. Therefore, this information cannot be provided without the prior permission of both.”
The educational qualification for Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been an enigma with several RTI requests already being rejected by the concerned authorities.
In September, the Gujarat University rejected an RTI request on Modi’s Masters’ degree saying that ” Under RTI act of 2005, this information can’t be made public.”
The Ahmedabad-based RTI activist said, “Modi ji recently talked about the need to have transparency in RTI and yet we often face disappointments through repeated rejections of our requests on his educational degrees. Every transparent government must publish their academic certificates on the chief minister’s website so that every citizen can see them. It seems the background check is only required in private jobs and it doesn’t hold true for political post holders.”
The RTI activist, who wished not to be named said that his decision to move the CMO was primarily because he had already faced ‘rejections from the PMO, the Election Commission and the Gujarat University.’
