The Trinamool Congress landed in a fresh spell of controversy barely three days before polling in some parts of Kolkata after senior Congress leader Arunava Ghosh alleged that State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee of plagiarism. The allegation against Chatterjee in the middle of poll season has turned into a campaign issue for Opposition parties, who pose this as “another example of the ruling party’s corruption”.
“Plagiarism softwares revealed that 80% of the contents of Chatterjee’s PhD paper were lifted from other research papers. He should resign at the earliest. I’ll move the Calcutta High Court and the University Grants Commission, seeking a probe into the matter,” said Ghosh, a prominent advocate and Congress candidate from Bidhannagar.
ad served as industry minister before being put in charge of education.
Ghosh’s daughter Atrayee, a research scholar pursuing PhD from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said, “Besides being plagiarised, the format of his paper is also does not follow guidelines laid down by UGC. It’s a wonder how the university awarded him 75% marks.” Chatterjee received a doctorate by North Bengal University in July 2014 for his research on ‘Transformation of Industrial Economy to Knowledge Economy with reference to Human Resource Management’.
Chatterjee, Trinamool candidate from Behala (West) constituency, said, “This a gimmick to confound voters and influence opinion during elections. I’ve nothing to say because the responsibility of proving this is on those accusing me. The varsity that conferred the degree is in a better position to issue a clarification.”
NBU officials ruled out chances of foul play and stressed that every PhD paper is evaluated by an external examiner. “Granting PhD to Chatterjee hadnothing to do with his being a minister. He worked on the subject and submitted a paper, which was evaluated and accepted following dueprocess,” an official said.
Neither Ghosh nor his daughter, however, was satisfied with the varsity’s defence. “Like all other published research material, Chatterjee’s PhD paper is available online and easy to look it up.
While using quotes is fine, there’s no citation in his paper and it’s strange how 80% of his paper is full of quotes. The thesis should be credited to people he quoted instead of awarding the degree to him,” Atrayee said. Chatterjee held on to his ground and claimed he did not flout any norms. “Research scholars are at liberty to quote famous personalities in their papers,” he said.