The BJP leadership seems to be speechless as the uproar over the validity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Smriti Irani’s degrees, claimed by them in their election affidavits, taking ugly turn.

It was revealed yesterday that Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani had asked the Delhi University not to disclose about her degree to an RTI applicant. This was conveyed by the School of Open Learning (SoL) has told the Central Information Commission (CIC). The CIC has now directed the SoL to produce before it all the records related to educational details of Irani.

Barely two days after Information Commissioner M S Acharyulu’s order allowing inspection of Delhi University’s 1978 BA degree records was made public, Chief Information Commissioner R K Mathur has taken away the charge of Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) from him. According to an order issued last week, all complaints and appeals related to HRD Ministry will now be looked into by another Information Commissioner Manjula Parashar.

Irani’s degrees have been caught in a row after a petitioner alleged she had given contradictory information in her affidavits filed before contesting elections in 2004, 2011 and 2014. In her affidavit for April, 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Irani had said she completed her BA in 1996 from DU’s SoL, whereas in another affidavit of July 11, 2011 to contest Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat, she said her highest educational qualification was B.Com Part I, a petitioner had alleged in a city court.

While this controversy against their degrees is continuing since over two years, their static silence strengthening suspicion to believe those were `fake degrees’. A senior BJP leader admitted that the entire episode leading to `credibility gap’ of the government.