Politics

'Nation Wants to See MBA Degree': Mahua Moitra on BJP MP Who Sought Action Against Gandhi's Remarks

Mahua Moitra has claimed that after the DU had denied that Nishikant Dubey had or was doing an MBA there, Dubey had surreptitiously said he got his degree from another institution. Dubey has responded with a tweet that appears to call those attacking him a casteist slur.

'Nation Wants to See MBA Degree': Mahua Moitra on BJP MP Who Sought Action Against Gandhi's Remarks

Nishikant Dubey and Mahua Moitra. Photos: Official Twitter and file.

3 hours ago

New Delhi: Two days after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey demanded that a special parliamentary committee be formed to inquire into Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “contemptuous” remarks abroad and urged that his expulsion from the House be considered so that “no one takes the pride and respect of high institutions for a ride”, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra dug up the academic records of Dubey and in a series of tweets questioned his educational qualifications.

Dubey has responded with a tweet that calls those attacking him “chandal chowkri,” a phrase deemed unparliamentary in 2022. The word “chandal” is Sanskrit for someone who deals with disposal of corpses and is considered a derogatory reference to oppressed caste groups.

Moitra, who had started her political career with the Congress, tweeted that Dubey had in his 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha affidavit claimed to be a “part time MBA from Delhi University”.

In another tweet she wrote that in the Delhi University had in August 2020 stated that it had “no such candidate with the name of the Honourable Member [who] was either admitted or [had] passed out from any MBA program in DU in year 1993 as claimed in affidavits.”

She added that an RTI reply had also stated the same.

The Delhi University had thus denied that any candidate by the name of Nishikant Dubey had done an MBA there, Moitra said.

“In 2019 Lok Sabha affidavit Hon’ble Member makes no mention of MBA and instead only states he has a PhD in Management from Pratap University Rajasthan in 2018,” she wrote, adding that one cannot do a PhD from a UGC-deemed university without a valid masters degree.

Moitra went into the issue further saying that Dubey in his PhD application to Pratap University made “no mention of DU MBA degree” and instead furnished an MBA transcript from Pratap University itself.

She tweeted that Dubey “clearly loves collecting MBA degrees” and quipped sarcastically that you “never know which one may work”.

The TMC MP said “now what the nation wants to wee is the MBA degree certificate issued by DU in 1993 to the Honourable Member. Maybe he can do a WhatsApp forward of the same.”

“People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. And people who have fake degrees and have lied on affidavits should definitely not throw the rule book,” Moitra further wrote, implying Dubey’s words to Rahul Gandhi.

She also challenged Dubey to prove the authenticity of his academic claims.

In response, Dubey tweeted images of an Election Commission complaint and screenshots showing a petition dismissal by the Supreme Court.

“This must be heart-wrenching and shocking for the woman MP from Bengal with the perverted mentality and her chandal quartet,” he wrote. The phrase has been explained at the top of the article.

In addition, he also said that the evidence acted as “a certificate to send them to Agra.” The city houses the Institute of Mental Health and Hospital.

Tagging two journalists, Dubey also questioned the RTI which Moitra had referred to.

Dubey has been in the news of late for his interventions against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. On March 15, he gave a notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker under Rule 223 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha on the allegedly “contemptuous and unbecoming behaviour” of Gandhi through his remarks in the UK.

The BJP MP claimed that Gandhi said that microphones are turned off in parliament when members from the opposition speak there and had asked why the biggest advocates of democracy like the US and the UK were silent on the developments in India on this front.

He had stated in the notice that “this conduct of the Member is required to be investigated thoroughly either by the Privileges Committee or by a special committee. Thereafter, House should consider whether such a member should be expelled from the House…”

Incidentally, Dubey is also a complainant and witness in the ongoing examination of notices against Gandhi in the Privileges Committee for his comments in his speech in the House on the Prime Minister and Adani issue.

Note: This article has been edited since publication with Dubey’s remarks.