By P.T. Bopanna
Prime minister Modi and myself are on the same boat when it comes to our university degrees.
While Modi has got his M.A. in political science from Gujarat University as an external candidate, I got my M.A. in political science from Karnatak University, Dharwad, as an external candidate.
While what the duds like Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire do not understand is that as an external candidate, you do not get to meet your fellow students.
The university prescribes the syllabus and you have to read them up and go and take the examination. When one is too preoccupied with the examination, you are not sure who sat in front of you or your back.
If anybody asks me to name a single person who studied with me for the M.A. external examination, similar to Modi, I too will not be able to name a single classmate.
Maybe the only mistake made by Modi was that he claimed he did his M.A. in “entire political science”, which I am afraid is not there in any recognised university.
I appreciate the courage of that guy Varadarajan of the Wire news platform for taking up the issue, as I too want to know what is this “MA in entire political science”. If I had known that such specialisation had existed, I too would have opted for the subject and made it big, instead of ending up as a pen-pusher for a small time portal www.coorgnews.in!