Political leaders need not be educated, UP minister Jai Kumar Singh tells schoolchildren

Addressing schoolchildren here, Uttar Pradesh Jail Minister Jai Kumar Singh played down the importance of education for politicians, saying political leaders just need to be visionaries.

Singh, an Apna Dal legislator, also criticised "educated people" who taunted ministers who had not studied beyond Class 10, saying these "educated persons" often created a "bad atmosphere".

"Many a times it happens that educated people like IAS and PCS officers, doctors and engineers used to say that a particular leader or legislator is only a high school (10th) pass and that illiterate people are ruling educated persons. These educated persons used to create different type of bad atmosphere. A leader need not be educated," Singh said while addressing students at a school in Mehmudabad tehsil on Tuesday.

"I am the jail minister. That does not mean I have to run the jails myself. There are jail superintendents and jailors for that. I have to just say that jails should have good food and management," Singh said.

The minister added that education and degrees have no meaning for a political leader.

"A leader should be a visionary. Education of a leader, his knowledge and degree do not have any meaning. If I envision that an ITI needs to be set up then it has to be built by engineers and architects, and not by the minister concerned," he said.