A video is being shared on social media claiming it as the visuals from an old interview in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen acknowledging that he had studied only up to matriculation (class 10th) in high school. The purported video clip shared in the post shows Narendra Modi saying- “I am not a well-educated person. At the age of 17, I left the home after high school. From there on until today, I am struck and focused on learning new things.” Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Old interview video showing Narendra Modi admitting that he studied only up to matriculation in high school.
Fact: The video shared in the post is a clipped one. The extended version of the video shows Narendra Modi explaining about his higher education stating that he graduated with B.A. and M.A. degrees through distance education. Modi in the interview asserted that he had completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees through distance education without going to college. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
When we searched for the video using relevant keywords on the internet, an extended version of the video was found published on a YouTube channel. This YouTube channel published the video with the description, “Old Interview (pre-2001) of Narendra Modi by Rajeev Shukla (when he was a journalist) on Ru Ba Ru“. The extended version of the video clip shows Narendra Modi detailing his higher education saying that he had completed B.A. and M.A. degrees through distance education.
Speaking about his interests, Narendra Modi in the interview said, “I am not a well-educated person. But maybe because of the blessings of god, I got an interest in learning new things”. Further, when Rajeev Shukla asked Narendra Modi about his educational qualifications, Narendra Modi said, “I left home at the age of 17 after high school. From then on until today, I am very much focused on learning new things. After high school, a senior in the Sangh (RSS) pushed me to finish my graduation. So I did my graduation as an external student from Delhi University, and then also finished my postgraduate as an external student. I stood first in the university but I haven’t seen the gates of a college“.
The video shared in the post clipped the portion of Narendra Modi talking about his higher education. Reporting about this clipped video, a few news websites published articles in the past. A recent article published by Factly while debunking the claims around font & other issues of Narendra Modi’s 1983 M.A. degree certificate can be seen here.
To sum it up, a clipped video is shared as visuals of Narendra Modi admitting that he had only studied up to 10th class.
