In its latest issue, Newsweek has apologised to Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi for "several inaccuracies" contained in a recent article it carried on him, including that he had failed to earn a degree and did not stick to his job with the Monitor Group for long.
In fact, Rahul has an M Phil degree in Development Economics and had worked for three years with the said group. The apology was in response to a legal notice sent to the magazine a fortnight back by Abhishek Singhvi, lawyer and AICC Media Department vice chairman, who had conferred with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son on the issue.
In a "letter from the editor", Fareed Zakaria admitted that the magazine had erred in reporting that "after a year of college in Delhi, (Gandhi) took economic courses both at Cambridge and Harvard, but failed to earn a degree." He clarified that Rahul's father Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while he was at Harward in 1991.
"Serious, immediate and life-threatening security concerns compelled Gandhi to transfer to Rollins College in Florida, from where he graduated with a BA in 1994. Gandhi went to receive an M Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge University, contrary to what we had said," Zakaria said.
Thereafter, Gandhi joined the Monitor Group, a leading, global-strategy consulting group in London, where he worked for three years. "Hence, the references in Newsweek's article to Gandhi's having "failed to earn a degree" or that he did not stick with the (Monitor) job for very long are wrong," the magazine said, while regretting and apologising for it.
{{/usCountry}}Thereafter, Gandhi joined the Monitor Group, a leading, global-strategy consulting group in London, where he worked for three years. "Hence, the references in Newsweek's article to Gandhi's having "failed to earn a degree" or that he did not stick with the (Monitor) job for very long are wrong," the magazine said, while regretting and apologising for it.
{{/usCountry}}"The apology nails a frequently reported canard and sets the record straight and we are deeply satisfied," said Singhvi while reacting to the issue.
The December-January issue had put Gandhi on the cover as the person who is expected to make his mark in 2007 alongwith half a dozen other political leaders from different countries.