Arvind Kejriwal was admitted in IIT Kharagpur on merit, not through corporate quota - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 30, 2023
A post is being shared on social media claiming that IIT Kharagpur in an RTI reply declared that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had got admission to the IIT through corporate quota and not based on the IIT-JEE examination. The post claims that the Jindal Group had donated a lot of money to the IIT and in turn, they nominated two of their own people including Arvind Kejriwal for admission to IIT Kharagpur. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had got admission to the IIT through corporate quota.
Fact: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is one of the Distinguished Alumnus Award holders of the IIT Kharagpur Institute, who completed a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the institute in 1989. IIT Kharagpur in an RTI reply confirmed that Arvind Kejriwal had secured All India Rank (AIR) 563 in the JEE examination to get admitted to the prestigious institute. Arvind Kejriwal did not get admission to the IIT Kharagpur through any corporate quota. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
When we searched to check whether the IIT Kharagpur had issued any such RTI response declaring that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was admitted to the institute through corporate quota, we found that many social media users have been making similar claims since 2016 by sharing a picture of an RTI response. Responding to a query on disclosing Arvind Kejriwal’s All India Rank (AIR) in JEE examination and the basis on which he got admission to the institute, IIT Kharagpur said that the data of Arvind Kejriwal’s IIT-JEE rank was unavailable with them. Highlighting the IIT Kharagpur’s response, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and many social media users alleged that Kejriwal got into IIT not based on the IIT-JEE examination, but through other methods.
On searching for further details, we found that IIT Kharagpur in another RTI response confirmed that Arvind Kejriwal got admission to IIT Kharagpur based on the IIT-JEE examination and stated that he secured AIR 563 rank in the IIT-JEE examination to get admission into the IIT. In a statement of the RTI response, IIT Kharagpur said, “As per available records, Arvind Kumar Kejriwal, Roll Number 8526118 was admitted in B.Tech (H) degree in mechanical engineering through IIT-JEE. All India Rank cards of all admitted candidates for such older session (1985-89) including Arvind Kumar are not traceable. However, after in-depth search from admission register, it is found that All India rank of Kejriwal is 563”. Reporting the RTI response, several news websites published articles in 2016.
IIT Kharagpur Registrar Pradeep Payne confirmed to the ‘ABP’ news in an interview that Arvind Kejriwal had secured AIR 563 rank in the IIT-JEE examination. Further, Pradeep Payne said that there is no such admission quota provided for the Jindal Group in IIT Kharagpur.
IIT Kharagpur honoured Arvind Kejriwal with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2009. IIT Kharagpur described Arvind Kejriwal as one of their alumni and brand ambassadors of their institute in their Information Brochure.
To sum it up, Arvind Kejriwal was admitted in IIT Kharagpur based on the IIT-JEE examination merit, not based on any corporate quota.