Copy-paste barb at Dr Partha’s thesis

Kolkata: For education minister and Trinamool heavyweight Partha Chatterjee, the looming poll battle just got tougher. Apart from fending off political barbs, he now has to battle another — allegations of plagiarism in his 2014 PhD thesis.

It didn't take long for his political detractors to seize the opportunity. Senior Congress leader Arunava Ghosh, himself in the poll fray, demanded Chatterjee's resignation for setting a bad precedent to students and even threatened to take him to court. When contacted, Chatterjee refused to comment. But his aides questioned the timing and motive of the charges and questioned whether no-attribution of academic sources is akin to plagiarism.

Chatterjee started his PhD thesis in 2009, when he was the opposition leader. But as the UGC changed its PhD norms, he had to restart in 2011. By then, he was an important minister. In 2014 he obtained his PhD from North Bengal University (NBU). After Chatterjee's PhD, his supervisor Anil Bhuimali, was made VC of the newly formed Raigunj University in 2015. Chatterjee was by then in charge of Bikash Bhawan.

Ghosh on Wednesday defended why he was leveling the charges now — two years too late. Ghosh's daughter Aatreyee, a JNU PhD scholar, and her friends, were asked by him to delve into Chatterjee's thesis. Aatreyee said, "We downloaded Chatterjee's research work and found no citations. Two to three names were given at the end, but this is not the right format. Every page needs to have detailed footnotes of authors whose works are cited in the chapters. We checked Chatterjee's thesis with a plagiarism software and it revealed that 59-79% of the work was plagiarised. Some chapters had over 80% matter belonging to others. In India, we use the Modern Language Association format. Chapters are sent to supervisors and PhDs are revoked if there is more than 25% plagiarism."

"We don't know when his PhD interview took place and who were on the board. Chatterjee should resign and remove the prefix Dr from his name. He blamed two senior academicians for going through Chatterjee's research paper and held them also responsible for this plagiarism. Chatterjee and Bhuimali must clarify if they copied. I shall move Calcutta high court and get Bhuimali's degrees revoked as well. I have already sought documents from NBU and UGC," Ghosh said.

Bhuimali argues that citation can be done in two ways. One it can be mentioned as a footnote in individual pages; else it can be given together in form of a bibliography later. This, he said, was as per UGC norms. "In this case proper credit has been given in the bibliography section. It is usual that around 20-25% in a thesis is taken from other sources," Bhuimali said. "The dissertation got approval of external experts as well and after that NBU conferred PhD on Chatterjee," he added.

He defended his appointment as VC of Raigunj University, saying he is eligible and has to his credit over a dozen books. So it is not the fact that he was Chatterjee's PhD which led to his appointment. as VC and rued media was maligning him. " I am a competent teacher and had been professor of NBU since 2006," Bhuimali said.

Blame it on the polls, Chatterjee now has to navigate another road-block.