Education not imp for politicians, says UP minister

LUCKNOW:Minister of state for jail Jai Kumar Singh created a flutter on Wednesday after he was caught on camera saying education wasn’t important for politicians.

The minister, however, later said he had been quoted out of context.

“... The educated at times create a bad atmosphere. A leader doesn’t need to be educated. For instance, I am a minister and I have my staff, personal secretary, departmental heads and others. I don’t have to run jails. There are prison superintendents, others to do that,” he was heard saying in a video clip that went viral.

“...All that I have to do is to tell them that good food should be served in jails and focus on management. A leader needs to be a visionary... ,” the minister, a lawmaker elected on BJP ally

Apna Dal’s ticket from Jahanabad, told a gathering at a Sitapur college.

When the Adityanath government was formed in March 2017, seven of the then 44 members (nearly 16 per cent) of council of ministers had declared their qualification as class X and XII pass though nearly 84 per cent (37 ministers) had said they were either graduates or had even higher qualifications.

Post reshuffle too, the educational qualification of Adityanath’s ministers continues to be decent, reason why Singh’s remarks came as a surprise. He too is a graduate with a degree in law.

Singh’s party Apna Dal reacted cautiously saying that it was difficult to arrive at a conclusion until the entire speech of the minister was heard.

“It isn’t what the minister meant,” said Rajesh Patel, Apna Dal spokesman, though the

laboured explanations didn’t prevent the opposition from taking potshots at the government.

“I feel I was selectively quoted in the video clip that has gone viral. I had made the comment in a particular context as I was telling the students that they need to study, focus on time management though the same may not be true for politicians. So, I was trying to compare but unfortunately I was selectively quoted. In hindsight, I agree I should have been more careful,” Singh told HT on phone.

In 2019, Niti Aayog had released the School Education Quality Index (SEQI) in which UP along with Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir was ranked at the bottom, reason why Congress took potshots at the UP minister’s comments.

“When a UP minister chooses to make such comments at an academic institute, amid impressionable minds, it proves the ‘visionary’ approach of the state government and its ministers. Little wonder UP continues to fare poorly as far as education is concerned,” Congress spokesman Zishan Haidar said.