False Claims About Arvind Kejriwal’s IIT Kharagpur Admission Go Viral Again!

These claims have been circulating on the internet since 2016.

Fact-Check: RTI showed that Kejriwal was admitted via JEE.

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

A social media post has claimed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not get admitted to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur on the basis of merit but via reservation.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

This claim has been recurring since 2016.

(Find archives of older claims here and here.)

This post recorded 140K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.) We also received a claim about this on our WhatsApp tipline.

Is this true?: The claim is false.

• In a Right to Information (RTI) response from IIT Kharagpur to one Aishwarya Parashar, Kejriwal did get admission to the institution after cracking the Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) and his All India Rank (AIR) was 563 in the 1985 to 1989 batch.

• Similarly, speaking to ABP Live in 2016, the then IIT Kharagpur Registrar Pradip Pyne commented that Kejriwal got AIR 563 rank and no corporate quota exists in the IIT.

How did we find out?: At first, we undertook a relevant keyword search and came across a news report by the Deccan Herald from 10 July 2016 which stated that Kejriwal did get admission into the college via JEE.

• The details were given by IIT-Kharagpur in reply to an RTI made by one Aishwarya Parashar from Lucknow.

• The request was initially sent to the office of the Delhi chief minister, who then forwarded it to IIT-Kharagpur.

• The Delhi CM's office had stated that they did not possess any records of Kejriwal's educational background.

Here is a preview of the report. 

• Similarly, we came across a news report by ABP Live on Facebook from 2016 about this topic. They spoke to then registrar of IIT Kharagpur, Pradip Pyne, who also debunked the claim.

• Pyne said that Kejriwal was admitted into the institute after securing AIR 563. He also mentioned that there was no corporate quota to get admission in college.

• In 2009, Kejriwal was honoured with the distinguished alumni award by the institute.

In 2009, Kejriwal was awarded by IIT Kharagpur. 

• We were also unable to find any details about a "corporate quota" in IITs.

• In 2016, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Subramaniam Swamy had attacked Kejriwal about his education qualifications. He hit at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and asked him to 'come clean' about how he got admission in IIT, as reported by The Quint.

Conclusion: The post has falsely claimed that Arvind Kejriwal got admission in IIT Kharagpur via reservation.

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