Fwd: Varun Gandhi lied about his SOAS/LSE degrees..
aryakrishnan ramakrishnan
From: <A.Ja...@lse.ac.uk>
Date: Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Subject:Varun Gandhi lied about his SOAS/LSE degrees..
The SOAS Alumni Relations Officer, has confirmed that Feroze Varun
Gandhi never graduated in Sociology from SOAS (as claimed by him/media)
as he withdrew from his MSc programme before completing it.
Feroze Varun Gandhi's connection to the LSE was only through the
"University of London External System", which is a distance-learning
provision administered by the LSE. He was never been admitted into the
LSE's own undergraduate student body and was never a member of LSE's
campus..
This info is crucial to counter the writ petition put before the
Allahabad high court asking for the charges against him to be dismissed.
The petition references his degrees from LSE and SOAS as evidence of
character. The character of a liar - he's lied about his degrees, he
lied about his recent anti-Muslim comments..
Please sign the following petition: http://lse-soas.com/index.php
<http://lse-soas.com/index.php> (you don't have to be LSE/SOAS to do
so)
Statement
We, the faculty, staff, students and alumni of the London School of
Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the School of Oriental and
African Studies (SOAS), wish to dissociate our institutions from the
values recently expressed by the politician Varun Gandhi. We note with
chagrin that Varun Gandhi's degrees from these institutions are being
used as a testament to his ethics and quality as a politician. His
statements are antithetical to the values promoted by our institutions,
and to our beliefs about responsible leadership in electoral democracy.
Varun Gandhi is a young politician whose great-grandfather, grandmother
and uncle have each been Prime Minister of India. His branch of the
family is no longer associated with the Indian National Congress, but
instead with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He holds
degrees from the LSE (BSc in Economics) and SOAS (MSc in Sociology).
The general election to India's parliament will be held over the next
month. Varun Gandhi is currently campaigning as the BJP candidate from
Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Excerpts from his speeches,
widely reported and viewable on the internet, include these statements:
* "This is the hand of the Lotus [the symbol of the BJP]. After
the elections, the hand of the Lotus will slit the throat of Muslims."
* "Ask all Hindus to unite if you want to save this area from
turning into Pakistan."
* "I am contesting for Hindus. I don't want a single Muslim vote,
either from Khalistan [the state sought by Sikh separatists; the
Congress candidate is a Sikh] nor from Pakistan."
* "If somebody lifts a hand against Hindus, or thinks they are
weak, there is nobody behind them, then I swear on the Bhagvad Gita that
I will cut off that hand."
The Central Election Commission has studied the recordings, found them
to be genuine, and informed the BJP that it 'expected' Varun Gandhi to
be dropped as a candidate. Despite this, the BJP national executive has
refused to cancel Varun Gandhi's candidacy. In doing so, it has given
implicit endorsement to a kind of electoral campaigning that severely
damages the fragile social relations between religious communities in
India. Uttar Pradesh has a long history of violence between religious
communities, much of it the result of inflammatory political appeals,
which have a demonstrated role in mobilizing religious pogroms.
By our signature here, we emphatically dissociate our institutional
values from the ones expressed by Varun Gandhi in the recordings, and
condemn his statements.
Best Wishes
Annu
Dr. Annu Jalais
Dept. of Anthropology
London School of Economics (LSE)
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
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