{"id":33630,"date":"2019-04-18T14:50:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T09:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=33630"},"modified":"2019-04-18T14:50:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T09:20:24","slug":"smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\/","title":{"rendered":"Smriti Irani degree row: ABP News anchor defends minister with falsehood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The controversy surrounding Union textiles minister Smriti Irani&#8217;s educational qualification had recently snowballed after Irani, in her affidavit before the Election Commission ahead of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, had declared that she is not a graduate. This was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news18.com\/news\/politics\/smriti-irani-in-her-poll-affidavit-admits-she-did-not-complete-her-graduation-2099323.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contradictory<\/a> to her earlier poll affidavits of 2014 and 2004.<\/p>\n<p>In a<a href=\"https:\/\/abpnews.abplive.in\/videos\/seedha-sawal-darbhanga-reacton-over-ec-bans-yogi-mayawati-azam-khan-maneka-from-campaigning-1109017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> debate broadcast by <em>ABP News<\/em><\/a> from Darbhanga in Bihar, the question of Smriti Irani&#8217;s degree once again come to the fore, when one person from the audience raised a question over her questionable educational qualifications. In response, the <em>ABP News<\/em> anchor moderating the debate said that Irani has a Master of Arts (MA) degree. The relevant portion of the discussion can be seen at 38:16 minutes in the video posted below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Seedha Sawal: Darbhanga speaks after EC bans Yogi, Mayawati, Azam Khan &amp; Maneka from campa\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DD_CJDWWi6k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the video above, the person in the audience poses a question to the BJP representative,<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Mera kehna hai ki yeh jo poochh rahe hain ki aapke neta 9va pass hai, main poochhta hoon inhi ke party ke mantri they, Smriti Irani, unse poochhiye unki degree kya hai (What I want to say is, they are asking that your leader has studied till 9th grade, I ask them, their own minister Smriti Irani, ask her what her degree is- translation).&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>To this, the ABP News anchor Rubika Liyaquat promptly responds, saying,<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;MA kiya hai sir correspondence se, MA kiya hua hai, MA kiya hua hai (She has done MA through correspondence, she has done MA, she has done MA- translation).&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>She then quickly moves on to another person in the audience. When this person too starts commenting on Smriti Irani&#8217;s educational qualification, Liyaquat says, <em>&#8220;Woh ab shiksha mantri nahi hai&#8221; (She is no longer the education minister- translation).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It may be noted that the question was addressed to the BJP spokesperson, but the onus of responding to criticism of Smriti Irani somehow fell on <em>ABP News<\/em> and its anchor, who defended Mrs. Irani by asserting not once, not twice but thrice that she has a MA degree.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Smriti Irani&#8217;s poll affidavit says otherwise<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/suvidha.eci.gov.in\/uploads\/affidavit\/2019\/PC\/S24\/37\/S2420190411033758.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">affidavit<\/a> filed by Smriti Irani ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Mrs. Irani is not a graduate. She had enrolled for a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) course through open learning at the University of Delhi in 1994. However, she had not completed it.<\/p>\n<p>This latest affidavit contradicts the information Mrs. Irani had provided in her <a href=\"http:\/\/affidavitarchive.nic.in\/CANDIDATEAFFIDAVIT.aspx?YEARID=May-2014%20(%20GEN%20)&amp;AC_No=37&amp;st_code=S24&amp;constType=PC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">earlier affidavit<\/a> ahead of the 2014 general election, where she did not explicitly mention that she had not completed her degree course.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33648\" src=\"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/04\/JUXTA_AFFI-1024x266.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/04\/JUXTA_AFFI-1024x266.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/04\/JUXTA_AFFI-300x78.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/04\/JUXTA_AFFI-768x200.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/04\/JUXTA_AFFI-990x257.jpeg 990w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/04\/JUXTA_AFFI-1320x343.jpeg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There is enough information already available in the public domain to suggest that Mrs. Irani&#8217;s claims about her educational qualification were at best dubious. Moreover, the same has been vindicated by her contradictory assertions in multiple affidavits. Despite this, the<em> ABP News<\/em> anchor resorted to falsehood about Mrs. Irani&#8217;s degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The controversy surrounding Union textiles minister Smriti Irani&#8217;s educational qualification had recently snowballed after Irani, in her affidavit before the Election Commission ahead of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, had declared that she is not a graduate. This was contradictory to her earlier poll affidavits of 2014 and 2004. In a debate broadcast by ABP [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":33662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"an_content_type":[],"coauthors":[132],"class_list":["post-33630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","fact_checks_claim_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Smriti Irani degree row: ABP News anchor defends minister with falsehood - Alt News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Smriti Irani degree row: ABP News anchor defends minister with falsehood - Alt News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The controversy surrounding Union textiles minister Smriti Irani&#8217;s educational qualification had recently snowballed after Irani, in her affidavit before the Election Commission ahead of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, had declared that she is not a graduate. 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In a debate broadcast by ABP [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Alt News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/altnews.in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antithoughtcontrol\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-18T09:20:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/04\/fi_smriti-1.jpeg?resize=1200%2C628&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arjun Sidharth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/thoughtbuoy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AltNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arjun Sidharth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arjun Sidharth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/48ded5f3e795c7aac8d7bd7f059ff342\"},\"headline\":\"Smriti Irani degree row: ABP News anchor defends minister with falsehood\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-18T09:20:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":488,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/10\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/fi_smriti-1.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/smriti-irani-degree-row-abp-news-anchor-defends-minister-with-falsehood\\\/\",\"name\":\"Smriti Irani degree row: ABP News anchor defends minister with falsehood - 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