Bengaluru: Political figures often utilzie the services of ghost writers, to pen their thoughts for various publications. This is an open secret in established news rooms. Had former Minister and presently, M P from Chikballapur M Veerappa Moily utilized one to castigate Modi’s policeis on welfare in an article, perhaps he would not have found himself on the front pages of newspapers, for the wrong reasons.
Yesterday, The Hindu, a very respected daily publication, withdrew an article written by Moily and published the same day, from its online edition for plagiarism. The article by Moily under the headline, “From Welfare to Paternalism” was published on the op-ed page (Perpsective) on June 11, 2015. The newspaper, today June 12, 2015 on the same page (left-bottom corner) stated that “Article by Veerappa Moily withdrawn”.
The Hindu in its clarification apologetically said, that it regrets the publication of Dr. Moily’s article, which contained unacceptable plagiarism, and has withdrawn it from the online edition.
The newspaper informed readers that Moily had copied verbatim several passages from the article, “Mr. Modi’s war on welfare”, by G Sampath published in The Hindu on May 26, 2015. The publication further added that “Dr Moily, whose reaction was sought, admitted that he had used some of the passages from Mr. Sampath’s article as ‘inputs’, and that he should have acknowledged it.
The Managing Editor of The Hindu P Jacob speaking to Newskarnataka.com said that “We unfortunately found plagiarism after the publication.” The newspaper has internal mechanism to find out plagiarism in the copies contributed by outsiders. However in the Moily’s case the newspaper figured out this act after the publication.
When questioned how often tall political figures were caught for plagiarism while contributing to The Hindu, in recent times, he said “this was the first time we found plagiarism has been committed by a politician of his stature.”
When Newskarnataka contacted Moily for his reaction, Moily declined to take the call.
