Rahul Gandhi supports Jayant Sinha’s withdrawal of Harvard alumni status

The petition for Union minister Jayant Sinha’s withdrawn of alumni status from Harvard alumni, launched by a student of Master of Public Policy at Harvard University in the US, has now the support of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The petition was filed against the Union Minister for felicitating criminals convicted for lynching in Ramgarh of Jharkhand.

Condemning the actions and saying it ‘has shocked the nation and brought disrepute to the institution’, was submitted to the President of Harvard University in Boston, which Gandhi supported on Tuesday. Urging people to sign the petition, The Congress president wrote on Twitter, “If the sight of a highly educated MP and central minister, Jayant Sinha, garlanding and honouring criminals convicted of lynching an innocent man, fills you with disgust, click on the link and support this petition.”

ALSO READ: ‘Have full faith in judiciary’, says Jayant Sinha on garlanding mob lynchers

Attacking the BJP-led Modi government over the issue, Congress and opposition parties have said that Sinha’s action would not only support and encourage the perpetrators, but will also give a ‘guarantee’ that they can continue with this type of incidents. Although, Sinha has stated that he has full faith in judiciary and condemns all acts of violence and any type of vigilantism.

Soon after the video came out in social media, where Sinha was seen garlanding the lynching convicts after they came out of prison on bail last week in Hazaribagh, there were uproar in the political arena. Clearing his stance, he had said, “The rule of law is supreme in our constitutional democracy. Any unlawful acts, particularly, those that violate the rights of any citizen, should be punished with the full force of the law.”

Not only the politicians, even bureaucrats have demanded that Sinha be sacked for felicitating the eight convicts. Former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Ribeiro, former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and 41 other retired bureaucrats share the same opinion, reports Hindustan Times.

ALSO READ: Giriraj Singh follows footsteps of Jayant Sinha, meets riot accused in Bihar