With the Supreme Court about to hear a petition that seeks to make graduation mandatory for candidates contesting polls, at least four out of total 14 members of parliament (MPs) in Assam have been found falling short of this proposed minimum qualification benchmark.
While two of these four MPs belong to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one belongs to All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and another one is an Independent (I).
The MPs are - Rameswar Teli (Dibrugarh), Pradan Baruah (Lakhimpur), Naba Kumar Sarania (Kokrajhar) and Radheshyam Biswas (Karimganj).
The second MP in this list from the BJP is Pradan Baruah who holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering and was educated at Dibrugarh Polytechnic College, Assam.
Though BJP hadn’t declared its list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls till the time of filing this report, both Teli and Baruah are likely to contest the polls again.
Former ULFA hardliner and incumbent MP from Kokrajhar, Naba Kumar Sarania, has also studied up to Class 12. He did his schooling from Tamulpur in Baksa district of Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) and secured third division marks in both his 10th and 12th standards. Sarania is likely to contest from Kokrajhar again.
Lastly, AIUDF's Radheshyam Biswas has also studied up to Class 12 from Karimganj College. Like Teli and Baruah, Biswas is likely to contest polls again.
Among the remaining parliamentarians from Assam, four are graduates and six are post graduates.
AIUDF MP Siraj Uddin Ajmal (Barpeta), BJP MPs Ramen Deka (Mangoldoi), Rajen Gohain (Nagaon) and RP Sarmah (Tezpur) hold graduate degrees while the remaining parliamentarians – AIUDF’s Badruddin Ajmal (Dhubri), BJP’s Kamakhya Prasad Tasa (Jorhat) and Bijoya Chakravarty (Guwahati), Congress’s Biren Singh Engti (Autonomous District), Gaurav Gogoi (Kaliabor) and Sushmita Dev (Silchar) – hold post-graduation degrees.
While there are educational criteria set for contesting the Panchayat elections, many opine that it's time the MPs be held to the same standards.
“It’s a total shame on the part of us people. All these years when we were electing the candidates we never saw or verified the status of the candidates. We must know the profile of the candidate we cast our vote for,” expressed Pankaj Surana, a resident of Guwahati.
In the same vein, another resident, Amarnath Sharma Laimayum said, “There should be highest qualification for the lawmakers for the betterment of the country.”
The prayer in the apex court says that since the functions performed by lawmakers are vital to democracy, they should be educated enough to understand the “pros and cons of the laws.” The Supreme Court is going to take up the matter on March 25.
A closer look at the educational qualifications of the Members of Parliament (MPs) India elected to its 16th Lok Sabha in 2014 reveals that around 10% of the members are not even matriculated. Among the MPs, 75 percent are graduates while six percent of the MPs hold doctoral degrees.
On the one hand we have highly educated MPs like Shashi Tharoor and Harsh Vardhan in the current Lok Sabha while on the other hand we also have a cabinet minister like Uma Bharti who did her schooling till 6th grade only.
Educational qualifications of Assam's popular politicians
In India, one doesn't need to have a formal academic degree to hold the position of a minister. This fact has led to several uproars from time to time and a lot has been debated on whether educational qualification should determine ministerial competence.
In recent times, there have been controversies surrounding the educational qualifications of various ministers - from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Smriti Irani; nobody has been left off the radar.
While the youth of India are giving their board examinations and preparing for a better future, let's take a look at how educated some of Assam's prominent politicians are.
Among the Assam ministers, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma holds the highest qualification of PhD in Philosophy. He also holds a degree in LLB (Bachelor of Legislative Law) from Gauhati University (GU).
The present chief minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, as well as the former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, are both graduate professionals with LLB from Gauhati University.
Similarly, Assam minister Chandra Mohan Patowary holds a master degree in arts (MA) degree from Gauhati University along with LLB from JB Law College. Presently, he is serving as the Minister of Transport, Parliamentary Affairs, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Industry & Commerce in Government of Assam.
Gauhati East MLA Siddhartha Bhattacharya too holds an MA and LLB from GU.
Further, while Atul Bora holds a graduate degree from Cotton College, Akon Bora graduated from Gauhati University.
Rakibul Hussain graduated from Nowgong College, Pramila Rani Brahma from Kokrajhar College, Rihon Daimary from North Eastern Hill University and Parimal Suklabaidya from GC College under GU.
Among the ministers who hold the least qualification is Naba Kumar Doley who has studied up to class 12.