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Row over Smriti Zubin Irani's qualifications continue

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Union HRD minister Smriti Irani at the parliament on Monday
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Human resource development minister Smriti Zubin Irani has in her kitty a certificate in 'parliamentary leadership' from Yale University, not a 'degree' that celebrated her leadership qualities. Ostensibly, Irani on Sunday forgot her 'ABC', slipped over 'C' and went straight to 'D', an error she corrected on Monday.

On Sunday, while taking a question at a summit on 'woman', Smriti said, "In that kitty of mine where people call me 'anpad (illiterate)', I do have a degree from Yale University as well which I can bring out and show how Yale celebrated my leadership capacities."

Within the hour, celebrations began on twitter, with memes mocking Smriti with various degrees of sarcasm. A source in the Rajya Sabha confirmed to dna on Monday that "Irani did do a India-Yale Parliament Leadership Programme in Yale University between June 19 and June 27, 2013. She went in her personal capacity."

A call to Yale University drew the response that "all media queries on the topic would be answered by email only." Obviously, news has travelled to that venerable institution, and Yale wasn't about to answer for Smriti's confusion over 'certificate' and 'degree'.

But, by then, Smriti had already tweeted: "Unfortunate that statement re my participation in a leadership program &certificate thereafter was misconstrued".

Smriti's use of the word "degree" on Sunday was criticised by opposition parties, which questioned how a six-day course could lead to a degree? To add insult to injury, Madhu Kishwar, not a friend of Smirti by any stretch of the imagination, tweeted: "What d'you do with HRD minister who doesn't know difference between univ degree & certificate issued for student for itsy-bitsy 6-day course?"

With her clarification on Monday, Smriti has shown that she does know the difference between a degree and a certificate.

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