The legacy of Friends can be seen in a new wave of US sitcoms about twenty-something pals hitting the small screen. But, unlike the classic show, they're struggling to make a mark. No sitcom has defined its era quite like Friends, the '90s show about six twenty-something friends living in Manhattan
India rushes 62-tonne aid to Nepal as it walks the talk on ‘first responder’ roleHT has accessed details of the aid, funds and other assistance being mobilised for disaster-hit Nepal. Published on: Aug 29, 2026, 07:45:14 IST By Shishir Gupta Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link India has
Will GTA 6 be delayed again? New CyberLeek clip suggests Rockstar 'not ready' for Nov 19 launchGTA 6 remains set for a November 19 release, but CyberLeek's latest gameplay leak has sparked fresh fears of another delay. Rockstar says it is nearly ready. Published on: Aug 29, 2026
Veteran actor Dimple Kapadia's bouncy hair at Dil Chahta Hai reunion steals the show: Know her secret, from onion juice… Published on: Aug 29, 2026, 07:41:13 IST By Sanya Panwar Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Dimple Kapadia stole the spotlight at Dil Chahta Hai reunion
Mumbai milk prices set to rise by ₹9/litre starting September 1The wholesale rate for milk across Mumbai and its adjoining metropolitan supply networks will leap from ₹93 per litre to ₹102 per litre. Updated on: Aug 29, 2026, 07:31:38 IST ANI Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Household
Gnani AI launched Artha, a sovereign AI stack for Indian companies and public institutions. This stack features the Evon 3.3 language model and the Plexus agentic platform. Evon 3.3 is an open-weights model trained on Indic languages and domain-specific data
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanded that the existing strength of the Lok Sabha remain at 543 seats for the next 25 years and sought an all-party meeting to discuss the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s proposed delimitation
Trump's 'Lake America' name change sparks 'Donald Ducks' memes on social mediaThe move quickly sparked memes and reactions on social media, with some people joking that Canadian geese should now be called “Donald Ducks." Published on: Aug 29, 2026
Anand Teltumbde: Why the controversy about Modi’s degrees is a test for Indian democracy
The Delhi High Court's judgment on August 25 that Delhi University need not disclose Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree has ignited fresh debate about transparency, truth and accountability in Indian democracy.
The court's claim that such disclosure intrudes into personal privacy raises questions not only about the balance between privacy and the right to information but also about the integrity of electoral politics.
At its heart lies a simple but explosive issue: if the prime minister's degree is fake, it amounts to having filed a false affidavit under election law, which would attract disqualification and even criminal prosecution. That the judiciary has chosen to shut the matter down instead of allowing scrutiny reveals the depth of institutional compromise.
This controversy cannot be dismissed as a minor distraction. It strikes at the foundations of constitutional democracy: truth in representation, accountability of those in public office and the ability of citizens to verify claims made by their leaders.
In a polity where image management has replaced substantive politics, the prime minister's degree has become more than a certificate – it is a symbol of how spectacle overwhelms truth.
The Delhi High Court's decision, after nearly nine years, to quash the Central Information Commission's directive in 2016 asking Delhi University to disclose Modi's degree represents a troubling retreat from the spirit of the Right to Information Act.
The court's reasoning – that educational qualifications constitute “personal information” exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of the Act – ignores the public interest embedded in the case.
When an individual occupies the highest elected office in the country, claims about their academic qualifications cannot be reduced to a matter of private concern. The prime minister's degree is not merely a personal detail but an element of his public persona, repeatedly invoked by his party in political campaigns and therefore subject to legitimate public scrutiny.
By insulating this information from disclosure, the court effectively shields powerful individuals from transparency while ordinary citizens face invasive scrutiny of even minor details in their dealings with the state.
Equally problematic is the timing and implication of the ruling. By taking nearly a decade to decide what should have been a straightforward matter, the judiciary has undermined the RTI framework, which was designed for timely access to information.
Instead of reinforcing the principle that transparency is the rule and secrecy the exception, the High Court has expanded the scope of exemptions in favour of the powerful, weakening the citizen's right to know and emboldening a culture of impunity where accountability is sacrificed at the altar of political convenience.
The order represents not just a narrow legal interpretation but a profound betrayal of the ethos of the RTI Act. The Supreme Court, in landmark judgments such as PUCL v. Union of India (2003) and Lok Prahari v. Union of India (2018), had affirmed that voters have a fundamental right to know the educational, financial and criminal antecedents of candidates.
The High Court's reasoning runs directly counter to this jurisprudence. By ignoring the Supreme Court's insistence that privacy exemptions under Section 8(1)(j) be narrowly construed and always subject to overriding public interest, the judgment erodes one of the few tools available for holding the political class accountable.
What makes the ruling even more damaging is its fit within the larger erosion of transparency under Modi's rule. Over the past decade, the RTI regime has been systematically hollowed out. The 2019 amendments curtailed the autonomy of the central information commissioner by placing commissioners' tenure and salaries under government control, while the institution itself has functioned more as a gatekeeper than a guarantor of transparency.
With pending cases now exceeding three lakh, disclosure rates shrinking and refusals multiplying, the system is already in crisis. The Delhi High Court judgment dovetails neatly with this trend: by insulating the prime minister from scrutiny, it reinforces a political culture where the most powerful remain opaque even as ordinary citizens are subjected to expanding surveillance and intrusive verification regimes like Aadhaar.
The Delhi High Court's invocation of privacy misframes the issue as a clash between individual rights and public curiosity. But this is no voyeuristic intrusion. Modi's degree is not a private diary or medical record. It is a credential he himself placed in the public domain, via affidavits, to secure electoral legitimacy. Once so declared, it becomes fair game for verification. In fact, shielding such information undermines privacy jurisprudence itself.
Privacy is meant to protect individuals from arbitrary state intrusion, not to enable powerful leaders to evade scrutiny. To conflate the two is to hollow out both privacy and transparency.
In short, the judgment is not an isolated legal misstep but part of a systemic erosion of transparency: it undermines the Supreme Court's own jurisprudence, weakens a vital democratic safeguard, and reinforces the political project of opacity under Modi.
The controversy over Narendra Modi's degrees began years earlier. In 2016, during a defamation case filed by Modi against political opponents, the matter was sub-judice in a court in Ahmedabad. As part of the legal process, the court had accepted the degrees as evidence.
Amit Shah, the Bharatiya Janata Party president at the time, held a press conference on May 10, 2016, to present to the media documents that he claimed were authenticated copies of Modi's degrees. The stated goal was to put an end to the speculation. However, the documents presented by Shah had the opposite effect and became the subject of intense scrutiny and further ridicule.
The documents shown were a bachelor's degree (BA) from Delhi University and a master's degree (MA) from Gujarat University. The documents, critics claimed, had obvious anomalies.
The BA degree from Delhi University (dated March 23, 1979) appeared to be computer-printed. This was a major point of contention. In 1979, personal computers were virtually non-existent in India, and official documents like degrees were almost exclusively typewritten. The use of a modern, computer-generated font (like Times New Roman, which was created in 1931 but only became widespread with desktop publishing in the 1980s and '90s) on a document supposedly from 1979 raised serious doubts about its authenticity, critics claimed.
Seven days after Amit Shah's press conference, Chandan Nandy published Modi's marksheets for his BA examination along with one of his contemporary's in The Quint and noted six purported discrepancies.
The Aam Adami Party looked into the matter and said that no one named “Narendra Damoderdas Modi” had passed out of the Delhi University in 1978, as Modi had claimed in his 2014 affidavit. It produced the degree certificate of a person named “Narendra Mahavir Modi” from Alwar, Rajathan. The party alleged that the degree certificate presented by Shah was fake. The BJP did not respond to the claim.
Critics also said that the Master's degree displayed by Shah stated that Modi had completed his studies in “Entire Political Science” as opposed to the standard phrasing “Political Science”. Critics claimed this was further evidence that the document was not genuine.
Despite these anomalies, the BJP and Amit Shah maintained that the degrees were absolutely genuine and obtained legally from the universities. Both Delhi University and Gujarat University issued statements affirming that Narendra Modi had been a bona fide student and that the degrees were authentic. They addressed some of the queries, such as the phrase “entire”, as a matter of standard university nomenclature in translation.
In March 2017, the court in Ahmedabad dismissed a criminal defamation case filed by Modi against leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party who had questioned the authenticity of the degrees. The court said that the act of questioning the documents did not amount to criminally defaming the prime minister. However, this was not a ruling on the authenticity of the degrees themselves.
The issue also played out in RTI requests, with the chief information commission eventually ordering Delhi University to allow inspection of its records of all students who passed the BA exam in 1978 (the year Modi claimed to have graduated). The university challenged this order in the High Court, citing privacy concerns. The recent judgement related to this case.
Does the degree really matter? After all, the Constitution does not prescribe educational qualifications for becoming prime minister. India has been led by leaders of varying academic backgrounds, from scholars like Manmohan Singh to grassroots politicians with minimal formal education. The issue is not whether a leader has a degree but whether he told the truth about it.
Here lies the crux: Modi's politics thrives on spectacle, on carefully staged symbols that substitute for reality. The “56-inch chest”, the “development man”, the “self-made technocrat” and omniscient “non-biological” person – all well-crafted narratives.
The degree controversy is of a piece with this larger trend: facts are irrelevant when myth can be manufactured. In an era of post-truth politics, the degree certificate is less a document of education than a litmus test of honesty.
The court's decision, by shielding the degree from scrutiny, aligns with this politics of spectacle. Instead of upholding the principle that truth must be verified, it implicitly endorses the idea that image is enough, that citizens have no business peeking behind the curtain.
What makes this episode especially troubling is the silence – even collusion – of institutions that are meant to uphold accountability. Delhi University's evasiveness, Gujarat University's legal resistance to disclosure and now the High Court's ruling form a chain of obstruction. Each step deepens the suspicion that there is something to hide.
The Election Commission of India, which is supposed to ensure the veracity of candidate affidavits, has been conspicuously passive. This is in contrast with its alacrity in disqualifying opposition legislators for relatively minor infractions. The asymmetry suggests not neutrality but bias, reinforcing the perception that institutions have been captured by the ruling regime.
Even the judiciary, long seen as the last bulwark of democratic accountability, seems unwilling to confront the executive. By invoking privacy in this context, the court effectively created a doctrine of immunity for political elites. If leaders' educational records are private, what about their assets? Their criminal cases? Where does the right to know stop?
There have been instances of politicians falsifying their educational qualifications. In 2015, Delhi Law Minister Jitendra Singh Tomar of the Aam Adami Party was arrested and forced to resign after a court found his LLB degree from Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University to be fake.
While Tomar was punished, Smriti Irani of the BJP – who was alleged to have misrepresented her own qualifications in election affidavits – has escaped scrutiny. Like it had done in Modi's case, the Delhi High Court last month said her educational qualifications were “personal information”.
Beyond law and politics lies the ethical dimension. At stake is nothing less than the value of truth in public life. If leaders can misrepresent basic facts about themselves without consequence, the very idea of accountability collapses. Citizens are reduced to consumers of propaganda, not participants in democracy.
It is not the degree but the integrity and honesty are in question. If a prime minister is suspected of being evasive about something as mundane as an education degree, it fuels concerns that he might try to escape questions about other matters too?
The issue spirals from the personal to the systemic: a politics built on falsehood corrodes public trust, fosters cynicism and normalises deceit.
History offers parallels. US President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal was not about the break-in itself but about the cover-up. Bill Clinton's impeachment was not about private conduct but about perjury. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro's manipulation of vaccine records was less about medicine than about deceit. When leaders treat truth as optional, democracy suffers lasting damage.
The degree controversy may appear symbolic, but symbols matter. It reveals how easily institutions bend to protect the powerful. It exposes the fragility of the “right to know”, once hailed as a milestone of Indian democracy. And it highlights the paradox of Modi's leadership: a man who has built his entire politics on image cannot allow that image to be punctured by fact.
The implications go further. If courts prioritise privacy over transparency in political disclosures, future leaders too may hide behind this shield. False affidavits may proliferate, with little recourse for voters. The already weakened mechanisms for accountability – the Election Commission, the RTI, the media – will deteriorate further. Democracy will become not a system of informed consent but of manufactured consent.
The controversy over Modi's degree is not about a piece of paper; it is about the meaning of democracy in India today. Does truth still matter in public life? Do citizens retain the right to verify the claims of those who govern them? Can rulers be held accountable under the rule of law or will image-making, spectacle and institutional complicity render accountability obsolete?
By refusing disclosure, the Delhi High Court has set a troubling precedent. It has, in effect, told Indians: you do not need to ask questions; you only need to believe.
That is not democracy. It is faith masquerading as politics. And when faith replaces fact, when spectacle replaces truth, the crisis is not about one man's degree. It is about the degree to which democracy itself has been hollowed out.
Anand Teltumbde is a former CEO, Petronet India Limited, professor at IIT Kharagpur and the Goa Institute of Management, writer and civil rights activist.
Source: Scroll
Related Posts: Mrunal Thakur’s Saree Edit Is The Lesson In Effortless Opulence We Needed Pakistani-origin man rents SF theatre to screen 3 Idiots for those needing inspo COMEDK UGET Result 2026 The Supreme Court’s right-to-walk judgment should change how Indian cities build roads Supreme Court judgment makes Uttarakhand liable to restore Justice Or Judgment Punjab University Or ‘Thar University’ Why some high-performing students may struggle at university Supreme Court quashes criminal proceedings against Ashoka University professor after Haryana refuses prosecution sanction Supreme Court sets aside Gauhati High Court order declaring 27 persons as foreigners
Meta glasses to stop recording if LED is covered, curbing misuseAccording to the press release, Meta Vice President of Wearables Alex Himel said that the update to the tamper detection was aimed at cracking down on misuse. Updated on: Aug 28, 2026
58 minutes ago
The dramatic footage was almost impossible to miss. A torrent of water tearing through Gyirong Port, one of the main border crossings between Nepal and Tibet, sweeping away all in its path as hundreds of people fled for their lives. The scenes, captured by CCTV cameras
59 minutes ago
A raft of new tariffs have been announced during the latest escalation of the trade war between the US and Canada. The North American neighbours have been locked in a bitter economic conflict since US President Donald Trump launched his flagship trade policy on his return to the White House
59 minutes ago
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis granted migrant drivers a one-year Marathi learning extension. This decision has drawn criticism from the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Shiv Sena and MNS. Leaders allege the move is politically motivated ahead of Uttar Pradesh elections
59 minutes ago
No student will ‘fail’ in Class 10, 12: Bihar govt to replace it with ‘Eligible for Skill Training’Bihar will replace ‘Fail’ on Class 10 and 12 marksheets with ‘Eligible for Skill Training’, allowing students to pursue vocational training Published on: Aug 29, 2026
58 minutes ago
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari addressed concerns at Jadavpur University. He condemned slogans and writings on campus walls, questioning their purpose. Adhikari organized a national song ceremony to promote patriotism in the area
59 minutes ago
Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics. As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up here (click on “follow”). Hui Ka Yan was once China’s richest person. On August 20
1 days ago
Nearly 700 OpenAI artificial intelligence agents coordinated without human intervention an attack on the Hugging Face platform during a well-publicised July incident, according to a report published Wednesday by independent investigators. It is the fullest account of what happened in an event that
1 days ago
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has urged Durga Puja organisers in West Bengal to follow “traditional” religious practices, including keeping meat outside puja pandals, India Today reported on Wednesday. It clarified that it was not asking for organisers to adopt an exclusively vegetarian approach
1 days ago
Stock market today: Sensex, Nifty open higher after two straight session of losses, ‘flash crash’Is stock market closed today? Both the NSE and BSE will operate as usual, with normal trading, clearing and settlement activities scheduled for the day. Updated on: Aug 28, 2026
1 days ago
Massive landslides and flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border have caused widespread damage and left hundreds dead or missing. Search and rescue operations are continuing after Wednesday's disaster. Chinese state media has said there are significant casualties
1 days ago
GTA 6 preview on Netflix: Lucia, Jason and a stunning new world come to life in 26-minute video; everything we knowRockstar Games’ extended look at GTA VI gives fans their first detailed glimpse of gameplay, graphics and the fictional Florida-inspired world of Leonida. Published on: Aug 28, 2026
1 days ago
Tech company will start an , a source familiar with the plans said, as the company seeks to step up its efforts to influence U.S. policy.The group will be called , the source said.Companies often set up federal political action committees, called PACs
1 days ago
IIT Kanpur SATHEE registrations surge after Modi’s online coaching announcementSATHEE recorded 154,000 new registrations between August 15 and 22, compared with 200-300 daily before Modi’s announcement Updated on: Aug 28, 2026, 10:40:34 IST By Sanjay Maurya Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy
1 days ago
Editorial independence is core to our work. Some links may earn us a commission, without influencing our opinions.Why keep juggling charging cables when these 5 wireless chargers under ₹5,000 can do the job?Your phone, watch and earbuds do not need separate cables
1 days ago
A man in Taiwan used his robot vacuum to secretly record his wife with another man after becoming suspicious about her relationship. The footage helped him win compensation in a civil case, but recording it later landed him in legal trouble. The same evidence that supported his claim against his
1 days ago
BJP leader slams Rahul Gandhi's remarks on Manusmriti, files complaintThe BJP leader alleged that Rahul Gandhi picked out a single chapter and twisted the words to malign the ancient text. Updated on: Aug 28, 2026, 10:42:55 IST Edited by Akanksha Verma Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link BJP
1 days ago
Getting a passport involves several verification steps, and the government has been gradually shifting the process toward faster and more digital services. New technology and updated procedures are being used to reduce paperwork, improve verification and make passport services more convenient for
1 days ago
It just took one pronunciation and a beauty and lifestyle influencer’s impressive collection of petroleum jelly for Vaseline to find itself with an unexpected new name: Baseline. A video of a South Korean skincare creator Min Day Lee recently went viral after she showed off her extensive
1 days ago
Editorial independence is core to our work. Some links may earn us a commission, without influencing our opinions.10 skincare kits your sister will absolutely adore this Rakhi 2026: Here are 6 things to keep in mind before buying themFind the best skincare kits for your sister this Rakhi 2026 with
1 days ago
A California judge on Thursday said he was likely to deny a bid to block Amazon from allegedly fixing prices by pressuring rivals to raise prices, in a setback for Rob Bonta's case against the online retailer.* Bonta sued Amazon in 2022, accusing the company of dominating online retail
1 days ago
Tesla Cybertruck gets colourful Indian makeover in US: ‘Dekho, magar pyaar se’A US-based vinyl wrapping company has given a Tesla Cybertruck a colourful Indian truck-art makeover. Published on: Aug 28, 2026, 10:17:04 IST By Vaishali Kapila Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Tesla’s
1 days ago
The administration has sounded a high alert in Maharajganj and Kushinagar districts of Uttar Pradesh and stepped up monitoring of the Gandak and other water bodies downstream of rivers in Nepal, following devastating flash floods in the neighbouring country
1 days ago
Hundreds of foreign nationals are desperately waiting to hear from loved ones thought to be caught in the deadly flash flood and mudslide along the Nepal-Tibet border. Sisters Shreya and Ashna Ahuja are among those anxiously waiting for some news of their parents, Deepak and Madhu Ahuja
1 days ago
The monsoon often changes the way we eat. Warm drinks replace cold beverages, cravings for traditional comfort foods return, and ingredients that have been part of Indian kitchens for generations once again find their way into our meals. Among them are jaggery and desi khand
1 days ago
Why a medicine works for one person but not another: Gastroenterologist says the answer may lie in the gut Published on: Aug 28, 2026, 10:10:16 IST By Adrija Dey Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Your gut determines the efficiency of the medicines
1 days ago
Eggs have long been one of the most affordable and convenient sources of protein in Indian households. But with egg prices rising across India, getting your daily protein doesn’t have to mean relying on eggs for every meal. As of August, prices of eggs have surged by nearly 35% to 40% compared to
1 days ago
