Union Education Minister Subhas Sarkar contradicts PM Modi on IITs and IIMs being set up in India

On two occasions, the Prime Minister asserted that "every year one new IIT and one new IIM is being set up in India," first during a Rozgar Mela on May 17 and then during his address at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) event in the United States.

Hyderabad: Wittingly or unwittingly, the union Government had itself exposed the hollowness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims in respect of his govenment’s achievements.

The Prime Minister had on two occasions, the first one during a Rozgar Mela on May 17 and the second during his address at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) event in United States had asserted that “every year one new IIT and one new IIM is being set up in India.”

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However, his ministerial colleague Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar had contradicted Modi on the floor of Rajya Sabha on July 26. In a written reply the minister told the House that no new Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) or Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) have been opened in the last five years.

The data shared by the minister further revealed that there were 23 IITs and 20 IIMs operational in the country. However, the information shared by the education ministry did reveal that 242 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been established in the country in the past five years. The list of 242 new institutions in the last 5 years includes 90 state universities, 140 state private universities, eight central universities, and four Deemed to be universities. The union Minister’s revelation has exposed the untruthfulness of Prime Minister’s statements.

Political parties have alleged that the PM making false claims from an international platform had demeaned the image of the country. Taking a swipe at the government, the Congress in its official Twitter handle tweeted,“PM Modi said in the US – Today a new IIT and a new IIM are being built in India every year. Now the government has told the Rajya Sabha that not a single new IIT and IIM has been built in the last 5 years. Why does PM Modi lie so much?”

Even netizens are fuming at the Prime Minister for lying to the country. A twitter user UK Das said,”Would the PM of any country in the world have lied so brazenly?”