Rahul Gandhi backs online petition to remove Jayant Sinha’s Harvard alumni status

New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday endorsed an online campaign mounted by Prateek Kanwal on change.org, urging the Harvard University to withdraw Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha’s Harvard alumni status. “If the sight of a highly educated MP & Central Minister, Jayant Sinha, garlanding & honouring criminals convicted of lynching an innocent man, fills you with disgust, click on the link & support this petition,” he said on his Twitter handle.

Sinha triggered the controversy by feting last Friday at his residence eight men, sentenced to life term, for lynching a 55-year old Muslim meat trader. The eight convicts have been recently granted bail by the High Court. The Congress was quick to condemn Sinha, saying “by lionising lynch convicts, he is only strengthening Sangh’s project to legitimise hate as it is this moral messaging that spurs lynch mobs in every corner of the country to turn upon their victims with cruelty and loathing.”

Jayant Sinha got an immediate rebuke from his father Yashwant Sinha, a former union minister who recently quit the BJP. Jayant tried to defuse the controversy asserting that “all forms of violence are condemnable.” n a statement, he said: “Let me say that even though I welcomed them in my home, I unequivocally condemn all forms of violence and reject vigilantism… Let the due process of law move forward. The guilty must be punished, but we have to ensure that everyone gets justice.” “I want to make my position clear… just because they came to my home, I do not condone their actions… I would urge people to read the bail order before condemning me,” Jayant Sinha said, alluding that he does not agree with the trial court’s findings.

Jayant Sinha was raised in privilege and educated in some of the world’s most reputed institutions. Born in Giridih in Jharkhand, where his father Yashwant Sinha then served as an IAS officer, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in 1985. Later, he enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania for a Master of Science in Energy Management and Policy, and went on to obtain an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked in McKinsey and Company in Boston, where he became a partner, followed by leadership positions in other information technology and hedge fund companies, before he returned to India to join politics.