DU fake degree row: ABVP’s Ankiv Baisoya says he studied ‘several types of subjects’ in Vellore
New Delhi : The newly-elected Delhi University Students’ Union president Ankiv Baisoya said that he had studied “several types of subjects” at Thiruvalluvar University in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore from 2013 to 2016. However, he had trouble recalling the specific subjects included in his Bachelor of Arts programme and also the names of any heads of department.
A member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliate, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, 23-year-old Baisoya had obtained admission in Delhi University’s postgraduate Buddhist Studies programme this year by submitting marksheets that are ostensibly from Thiruvalluvar University, a state university. He says that he graduated from there in 2016.
But the Tamil Nadu branch of the Congress Party and its students’ group, the National Students Union of India, had the documents he submitted vetted by the university. Its controller of examinations declared the document a “fake certificate”. On Tuesday, the National Students Union of India circulated images of that letter, the envelope in which it had arrived and a photocopied marksheet.
Baisoya, however, described the documents the rival union was circulating as “a fraud”. He said: “Their attempt to create a controversy over the [electronic voting machines] used in the polls did not work, that is why they are questioning my degree. Whatever these documents are, they can be verified and I will fully cooperate with the process.” NDTV has reported Thiruvalluvar University officials insisted that no one named had Ankiv Baisoya studied there.
“It is incumbent on DU administration to investigate and expel Ankiv Baisoya if certificate [is] fake,” said Ruchi Gupta, a Congress member in charge of the National Students’ Union of India. “Needless to say, he will also no longer remain [Delhi University Students’ Union] president.” Rival students leaders, especially those from the Left, gleefully noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s postgraduate degree in political science from Delhi University also has a question mark dangling over it.
But as in Modi’s case, Delhi University has not addressed the Baisoya issue. “I have had so many calls from the media since morning but none from the university,” the Parishad leader said. “No one from the university has called and said, ‘Your degree is a fake.’”
KTS Sarao, the head of Buddhist Studies, a department singularly rich in student leaders, told The Indian Express: “When there is a complaint raised, that is the time degrees are verified. There is a department in the university which does this. For now, we have not received any complaint.” But on Wednesday morning, the National Students’ Union of India announced it would file a police complaint against Baisoya for alleged forgery and another with the university.
Life in Vellore
There is practically no trace of Baisoya’s life in Vellore on his Facebook page although it is rich in photographs from campaigns and protests in Delhi University over much the same period – he is either in them or has been tagged on them.
For example, he has been tagged on a photograph posted on Facebook on October 17, 2014, which is clearly of a protest at Delhi University’s Faculty of Arts. The Parishad’s present state secretary, Bharat Khatana posted the photo of another protest on November 12, 2014, and tagged Baisoya on it. Khatana and a noticeably slimmer Baisoya, appear in a third photo, posted six days later, both wearing the Parishad’s name-tags. Photographs from the next two years are more numerous, especially from 2016 when he clearly helped campaign for the Parishad’s candidate for president, Satender Awana, who had also won.
Asked to explain why he appears in campaign material and protest photographs in Delhi but there is none of his life in Vellore, he said: “Mera up-down hota rehta tha” – I kept travelling back and forth between Vellore and Delhi. “In the middle I would go for examinations, some classes or if I had some work but most of the time I was in Delhi only,” he added. He also insisted that he had attended a “regular programme” and not a distance-learning or correspondence one that could have explained his ubiquity in Delhi’s student politics in that period.
About his student life, he appeared to remember nothing. Asked which subjects he studied as part of his arts programme, Baisoya could not name a single one except English: “I wrote several types of exams, in English and skilled-based subject.” Upon being prodded on whether he did history or any other discipline, he said he studied “several types of subjects – skill-based subjects, core, allied”. He could not recall the name of the head of any department.
This vagueness is reflected in at least one marksheet shared by the National Students’ Union of India. It apparently represents his performance in the third semester and in place of subjects, it gives the type of course it was – “core theory”, “allied III” and “skill based subject”. The semester stretched from May 2014 till June 2015, even though it seems improbable that the semester lasted a whole year. In addition, the marksheet was issued before the semester was finished, on December 22, 2014. The document bears the names of Baisoya’s parents. The web address stated is “thiruvalluvaruniversity.ac.in” in place of the actual www.tvu.edu.in. As some reports have noted, there are errors in the Tamil version of the name printed on the certificate.
Delhi college
At the same time, there are hints on Baisoya’s Facebook page of his association with a Delhi college. In September 2014, he was tagged on campaign material but for a candidate contesting in a college election – commerce student Sumit Yadav was contesting the post of president in the students union of the College of Vocational Studies, affiliated to Delhi University. An Ankiv Baisoya appears in tutorial records of the college’s economics department in 2015 and 2016. Then, as recently as on September 10, popular student journal DU Beat profiled each candidate from the Parishad’s panel and described Baisoya as an economics graduate from the College of Vocational Studies.
But the Parishad has defended him, choosing to place the onus of fixing this on Delhi University. “Delhi University gave admission to Ankiv Baisoya after due verification of its documents,” said the institution’s media convenor. “Even today DU has all the right to verify documents of any student enrolled in university. But it is not the job of NSUI to provide certificates to any person.”
courtesy : scroll.in
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
