BENGALURU: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president BK Hariprasad has chided Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the appointment of Nandan Nilekani as the head of a high-powered task force to recommend comprehensive examination reforms.
Hariprasad recalled Modi calling Nilkekani a “faceless billionaire” in the past. He had even urged the Prime Minister to apologise for allegedly insulting Nilekani in the past.
Nilekani, Infosys co-founder,was the founding chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India during the UPA II regime, where he led the design and implementation of the world’s largest biometric identity system. He had even contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Bengaluru South constituency and eventually lost to BJP’s HN Ananth Kumar.
“It is nothing new for Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the BJP party to embrace those they once condemned,” he posted on social media platform X.
“Yet today, they have handed the responsibility of the high-powered committee to reform the country’s examination system to the very same Nandan Nilekani! Dear Prime Minister, Has Mr Nandan Nilekani suddenly gained a ‘face’ now? Or have the accusations you made back then lost their face today? If those accusations were true, why hand over the future of millions of students in the country to him? If those past accusations were false, when will you apologize for the personal insults hurled against an achiever on a public platform?” he questioned.
“This is not leadership: insulting the country’s talent when identifying with the opposition, and knocking on the door of that same talent when you need to fix the failures of your own governance-it is an indecent display of opportunism. We have no doubt about Nandan Nilekani’s capabilities. The question is about Narendra Modi’s political integrity.,” he said.
