Indian seeking presidency of Guyana, in academic ‘fraud’

Mohamed Irfaan Ali, a fourth generation Indian, who studied in Delhi and accused of academic fraud, is seeking the Presidency of Guyana. His great grandparents left India to work on sugar plantations in then British Guiana.

Some half of Guyana’s 800,000 population is of Indian origin. Mr Ali studied at the Indraprastha University (IU) in Delhi where he obtained a Provisional MA.

News reports out of Guyana say he was implicated in academic fraud submitting a fake undergraduate degree to support his application for admission to the MA program at IU in 2002.

Mr Ali is the candidate of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) who is challenging the incumbent Mr David Granger, leader of the People’s National Congress led coalition. The coalition won the election in 2015. But Mr Granger lost a no confidence vote a year ago triggering early elections on March 2.

Ali is the main opponent of Granger. Ali has also been implicated in several scandals relating to other fake educational certificates, some tied to institutions in India.

One certificate has him obtaining a post graduate diploma in 2002 from an unaccredited institute in Chennai, a paper diploma mill, All India Institute of Management Studies. But Ali is alleged to have never received an accredited BA Degree that would qualify him to pursue post-graduate studies. A Facebook report said he was admitted to the University of Guyana in 1996 but dropped out in 1997.

Ali was admitted to the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (Indraprastha University) in 2002 to pursue MA studies although he never received a accredited BA Degree. He claimed he received a Provisional MA from Indraprastha University in January 2003. He submitted a BA Degree from a non existent institution in Guyana to support his admission application at Indraprastha Univ. Officials at Indraprastha say that Mr Ali’s file has been sealed and that information in it can only be made available through an official RTI (Right to Information) application.

News reports out of Guyana say that Mr Ali has refused to address questions relating to his admission at IU and validity or otherwise certificates. His supporters say that the controversy is politically motivated and designed to ensure Mr Granger’s victory over a candidate of Indian origin.