The audience, that comprised students, must have expected words of inspiration and advice from the speaker, who was a senior minister in the Uttar Pradesh government.
The minister, instead, virtually demeaned education and said that the leaders did not need to be educated and that, those, who were educated, created ''bad environment'' in the society.
The shocking remarks were made by UP minister of state for jail Jai Kumar Singh while addressing a gathering of students at an inter college in the state's Sitapur district, about 90 kilometers from here, on Tuesday.
''Neta ko degree ki jaroorat hi nahin hai...usko padhne likhne ki avashyakta nahin hai....main jail mantri hoon par mere paas sachiv hain....jail adhikari hain...woh jail chalayenge,'' (the leaders do not require any degree...they do not need to be educated...I am the minister of jail but I don't have to run the jails...I have secretaries...jail officials), Singh was heard saying in a video, that went viral on the social media.
The minister went on to say that the educated people were creating a bad environment in the society. ''Often the IAS and IPS officers are heard saying that the politicians are uneducated...in fact, the educated people are bad for the society,'' he remarked.
While the students were visibly shocked by the remarks of the minister, the teachers declined to offer any comment perhaps fearing action.
''It is really shocking that a minister makes such kind of statement and that too while addressing the students....what message will the students get?,'' said a former faculty at Lucknow University here on Wednesday.
Singh's remarks come close on the heels of the statement by union minister Sanjiv Baliyan that the students from western UP would set right the 'tukde-tukde' gang of JNU, Jamia and AMU if ten per cent reservation was given in these varsities to the students from the region.
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