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Journalism of Courage
From a graduate to having studied till Std XII. How and why does a minister demote himself during the five years he has served the state?
Minister of State for Home Kripashankar Singh has done just that, juggling his educational qualifications to suit the occasion. In his affidavit submitted to the election authorities for the October 13 Assembly elections, Singh has stated that he has studied up to the ‘inter’ level, the equivalent of Std XII in UP in 1969.
Surprisingly, a booklet offering a thumbnail sketch of the state’s legislators, prepared after the 1999 Assembly elections, states he is a Science graduate. The booklet was prepared by the state legislature as an introduction to the elected representatives and is based on details provided by the legislators themselves. Tucked away between the pages of both sets of documents is a lesson in honesty that Singh sought to give the electorate before his candidature was announced for the upcoming elections.
His rivals in the Congress did a double-take when he placed ‘ballot boxes’ in his constituency — Santacruz — asking people to vote on whether he should contest. After a sizeable percentage of citizens voted in the affirmative, Singh took the ‘results’ to Delhi to prove the support he enjoyed.
