Amid row over Smriti Irani's degree, Arun Jaitley rakes up academic credentials of Rahul Gandhi

“One day the focus (of Congress campaign) would be on the BJP candidate’s educational qualification, fully forgetting that a public audit of Rahul Gandhi’s academic credentials may leave a lot to be answered. After all, he got an MPhil without a Masters degree,” Jaitley said in a Facebook blog titled 'India’s Opposition is on a Rent a Cause Campaign'.

He said in the entire campaign by the opposition party, there was “no running thread” which connects which is being said today or what has been said over the last several months.

“There is no leader, no Gathbandhan, no Common Minimum Programme and no real issue. Not surprisingly there are not many takers for a “failed campaign”. It is ‘Rent a Cause’ Campaign,” he further wrote.

Jaitley said one day the Congress called the Pulwama terror attack a “self-engineered” one and Balakot air strike by the Indian Air Force a “non-existent operation”. The principal opposition even went on to say that the BJP has whipped up a war hysteria but next day took a U-turn and dubbed the BJP as “pro-Pakistan”.

He also maintained that the Congress campaign on Rafale aircraft deal "did not carry much weight".

"The false campaign on Rafale didn’t carry much weight," he said adding - "Loan waiver to industrialists was a lie, the EVM as an instrument of rigging was a bigger lie".

"Now that they are in the midst of the campaign for over a month what is the issue which they are able to focus on?" he wondered.

On the other hand, the saffron party and its allies are speaking "directly to the people, through mass rallies, media and social media".

They have been campaigning about the message of the party and the government to the people, Finance Minister said.

"Not having built up a single major issue against the Government in the past five years, the strategy is to pick up an issue for a daily tweet or a press-briefing. This is the plight of the opposition campaign," he said castigating the Congress campaign strategy.

On Friday, BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy, also referred to Rahul Gandhi's academic qualification and tweeted saying: "The scatter brained spokesperson (of Congress) is now ranting about Smriti Irani's degree", but the Congress president has also in his nomination papers falsely claimed that he got M Phil degrees.

"He (Rahul Gandhi) failed the pre-thesis exam, so not permitted to write his thesis," Dr Swamy wrote.