Rahul Gandhi at Cambridge: Raul Vinci, Rahul Vinci or Da Vinci?

mangaloretoday.com/ India Today

New Delhi, Feb 19: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took the name of "Rahul Vinci" when he studied for a year at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1994-95, it has now been confirmed.

According to a story published in The Telegraph, following his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, those closest to Rahul were paranoid about his safety and might have forced him to take cover under the misleading surname.

 

The report quoted University sources to point out that the "Red Book", which lists Cambridge University members, lists him as: "VINCI, Rahul T MPHIL95".

The "T" here stands for his college, Trinity, where his great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru and father Rajiv Gandhi, were undergraduates - the former read natural sciences, the latter engineering, though it is generally assumed Rajiv did not complete his degree, the report said.

The cryptic code in the "Red Book" means Rahul Vinci took his MPhil in 1995. Cambridge University former vice-chancellor Professor Alison Richard had recently confirmed in a letter that Rahul was indeed awarded an MPhil in Development Studies in 1995 under the name of Raul Vinci. "It is extremely unfortunate that a controversy has arisen regarding your degree and we would like to set the controversy at rest immediately," she was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, a UK-based academician has sought to dispel speculation over Rahul Gandhi’s credentials as a Cambridge graduate, saying he had a hand in the Congress vice-president’s admission to the prestigious university.

"Yes, I had a hand in getting Rahul when he came incognito to Trinity under the name of Da Vinci some years back, but I didn’t actually teach development studies," said Dr Anil Seal, a fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

The half-Indian scholar was responding to being introduced as the "personal tutor" of Rahul and before him his father Rajiv, who he described as "not perhaps our star pupil".

So, what was the correct name that Rahul took while in Cambridge: Raul Vinci, Rahul Vinci or Da Vinci? Only the Congress vice-president can tell what name appears on his MPhil certificate.

In his interview to Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami recently, Rahul Gandhi had finally responded to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s jibes at his degrees being fake. The Congress scion replied that he can show his degrees if he wants and added that Swamy has been attacking his family for 40 years. Gandhi said he had submitted a sworn affidavit regarding his degrees in Lok Sabha, and if they were fake then Swamy was free to seek legal action.