'He failed in one subject, got MPhil without Masters Degree': BJP jabs Rahul

New Delhi, Apr 13: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has come out in support of his collegaue Smriti Irani and said the academic credentials of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, too, were the subject of debate.

Arun Jaitley took swipe at the Congress president and recommended a "public audit" on his educational qualification and that would solve many unsolved questions and puzzle.

"One day the focus would be on the BJP candidate's educational qualification, fully forgetting that a public audit of Rahul Gandhi's academic credentials may leave a lot to be answered. After all, he got an M.Phil without a Masters degree," said Arun Jaitley.

In 2009, amid a row over Gandhi's foreign degrees, the University of Cambridge had said the Congress leader was a student of Trinity College and was awarded an M.Phil in Development Studies in 1995.

The controversy over Irani's qualifications reignited on Friday after the minister, in her election nomination paper, said that she did not complete her graduation. However, in her affidavit for 2014 polls, Irani had reportedly said that she had graduated from Delhi University's School of Open Learning with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1994.

In the category of Highest Educational Qualification, the affidavit said "Bachelor of Commerce Part-1" from the School of Open Learning (Correspondence) University of Delhi. "Three year degree course not completed," is written in brackets.

Irani made the same declaration in her 2017 affidavit to the Rajya Sabha, where she is a member.