Congress leader Salman Khurshid
In a double-strength swipe, the Congress' Salman Khurshid today linked the controversy over a central minister's college marksheet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" pitch.
"He doesn't know that you don't write your own marks in the marksheet. You know, 'Make in India!'...come make your own marksheet," Mr Khurshid, a former central minister said.
RS Katheria, Minister of State in the Human Resource Development Ministry, faces charges of forging two university marksheets and a work experience document to get a reader's post in Agra; a court will hear the matter on November 26, less than 20 days after the BJP lawmaker was sworn in as minister.
Prof Katheria said today that, "If the charges are proven, I will not just resign as minister but also as a parliamentarian."
He has called it a political conspiracy against him. The forgery case against him was filed by a rival Bahujan Samaj Party candidate who lost narrowly to him in the 2009 national elections. He has been charged with cheating and dishonesty under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
Mr Khurshid linked the controversy to an earlier one about the educational qualifications of Smriti Irani, the senior minister in the same ministry. "There is something called a talent pool and one picks people for a particular job, the best suited candidate is chosen. In this case, it seems those who have maximum human resources have been picked for the job," he said in more sarcasm.
Fellow Congressman Digvijay Singh tweeted, "First Minster HRD and now MOS HRD has given Fraud Mark Sheet! On top of it RSS wants to change the Text Books and Indian History".
Professor Katheria was one of 21 ministers inducted last Sunday in Mr Modi's Cabinet expansion exercise. This is only one of the 21 cases that Mr Katheria has listed in his election affidavit.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "All these cases are nothing but political vendetta. The case had been started by the BSP government. The BSP government could not find anything in the enquiry and as a result no FIR was filed."