Did Narendra Modi say he studied Mechanical Engineering?
Many in social media claim that Modi said in an interview in 1992 to a Kannada Magazine that he studied Engineering.
Rating
Claim
Wowww 👏👏👏Congratulations for the Mechanical Engineer degree too.. #justasking
Explanation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree certificate issue has been hotly debated for many years now. Recently, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was fined Rs.25,000 by the Gujarat High Court while ruling on a case filed by him demanding Narendra Modi’s degree certificates. The Court also said that providing degree certificates of Narendra Modi is not necessary.
In a past interview to Rajeev Shukla, Narendra Modi said that he studied till High School and left home; then later studied BA & MA in correspondence. But there were many controversies surrounding that claim and many wondered if he really studied College.
In 2016, supposed photocopies of Narendra Modi’s degree certificates were released by Amit Shah in a press conference along with Arun Jaitley. The tweet is still up in BJP’s official twitter handle.
PM Modi's educational degrees made public by Shri @AmitShah : BA from Delhi University & MA from Gujarat university. pic.twitter.com/6A4pzGXLRl
— BJP (@BJP4India) May 9, 2016
After releasing the degree certificates, many questions were raised about the authenticity of the certificate, because of the discrepancies that were found in those certificates. Back in 1976, the font used in certificates was different from the one in the certificate released by Amit Shah.
The marks too were handwritten in 1976 but the released certificates had marks typed in them. Many such discrepancies have kept the debate about Modi’s degree certificate going till today. Even after getting fined by the Court, Arvind Kejriwal is pressing hard for Narendra Modi’s original degree certificates to be shown in public.
Actor Prakash Raj, Kapil from Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team and many others in social media are now claiming that Narendra Modi, in an interview in 1992, claimed that he studied Mechanical Engineering. A picture of a newspaper cutting supposedly from Kannada Magazine “Taranga” is shared along with these posts to make the claim.
What’s the truth?
We translated the text in the newspaper cutting through Google Lens and also had it translated with a native speaker of Kannada who knows to read and write well. The text from the newspaper cutting reads as follows:
“Narendra Modi. The youth in the picture is Narendra Modi from Gujarat BJP. As his party’s general secretary for the state, he was the driving force behind his party’s massive success. He was known as a stong organizer since his student days. Although he is known to the public as the leader of the 1974 Gujarat Navnirman movement called by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash, his work is mostly for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Narendra Modi, the divisional leader of the Sangh in the division, is an engineering graduate who is well-known in the party as a stong planner and organizer. He’s a member of the party’s national committee and has dedicated himself to the society.”
Nowhere in the text, it mentions Narendra Modi himself claimed that he was a (Mechanical) Engineering graduate. This article was written about Narendra Modi and it is claimed to be from Taranga. So, YouTurn contacted Taranga and spoke to its Editor Dr.U.B.Rajalakshmi.
She responded that Santosh Kumar Gulwadi was the editor of the magazine during that time (1992) and he is no more. But she confirmed to us that the newspaper cutting is not from Taranga. So, it is quite clear that claims that Narendra Modi himself said that he studied Engineering is false and also the paper cutting is not from Taranga as claimed in social media posts.
Conclusion
The paper cutting that is claimed to from a Kannada Magazine Taranga is fake. The claims that Narendra Modi said that he studied (Mechanical) Engineering is also not true, as there is not evidence to show Narendra Modi ever making that claim.
