WSN Service

NEW DELHI: A reader of The Tribune, leading English daily of North-West India, has charged the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper with plagiarizing from a book by a western author on terrorism. -Kirpal Singh, a resident of Ludhiana and a former political Secretary to which Punjab Chief Minister Partap Singh Kairon has complained to the Press Council of India, a non-judicial institution set up by the Indian government to maintain journalistic standards and ethics, that V.N. Narayanan the South Indian brahman editor of The Tribune, has verbatim lifted ideas and words from the book, Invisible Armies Terrorism in the 1990s by Stephen Segaller, in his article “Game is the same, Rules vary,” published in The Tribune on April 4, 1990. For example, Kirpal Singh has complained that the second paragraph of Narayanan’s article contains lines lifted from the back cover of the book which reads: “At the heart of every terrorist action, there is a cause, a political goal, a Perceived injustice or denial of liberty that is as concrete as the activists as any Prime Minister’s notion of j justice or freedom.” The lines in Narayanan’s article read: “At the heart of every terrorist action there is a cause, a goal, a perceived hurt or denial of justice that is as obvious to the activists as a Sovemor’s motion of justice or freedom” Kirpal Singh has listed several such examples in his complaint. Kirpal Singh has also written to the Tribune Trust, which manages the newspaper to take action against its Editor-in-chief who, by his act of plagiarism, had lost the moral right to lead a team of journalists, Kirpal Singh has revealed that he wrote three letters to the Tribune editor on the plagiarism issue, but he did not bother to reply. Another Tribune reader,  B.R. Bajaj, a senior [AS officer of the Punjab Government, has also written to the Trust about the Editor’s unethical act.

In his reply to the complaint, Narayanan has not denied the charge of plagiarism. He admits it in his own words: “It may be asked why I did not acknowledge the sources. I would have, but there were too many reference sources”.

In fact, he reveals in his replies to the complaint that he has verbatim lifted ideas and words from at least three other authors, which means that at least six paragraphs of the 14-paragraph article have been plagiarized.

However, the Editor defends his act on the plea that there was no need to acknowledge the sources and that journalists are not original writers and that since he had lifted from about four writers, acknowledging them would be a waste of space. He has also stated in his defense that “As I had the average Tribune reader in view, putting in all these names in a brief article somehow seemed out of place.”

Narayanan it is learnt has reportedly resorted to diversionary tactics to delay the proceedings of the Press Council of India. He camped in Delhi, at Tribune expense, for three days before the first hearing on the case on July 10, 1991, and reportedly lobbied with members of the Council to delay the proceedings by charging that Kirpal Singh’s complaint was a part of a conspiracy to damage his career.

Although there is no substance in the “conspiracy theory” of Narayanan,  his supporters on the Council refused to discuss the actual complaint and kept focusing on non-issues, They succeeded in getting a discussion on the complaint put off for at least two months, : :

The helplessness of the Council Chairman, R.S. Sarkaria, a former judge of the Indian Supreme Court, was evident during the meeting on July 10 when some council members, eager to stall the proceedings, even charged that the complainant, Kirpal Singh, was a fictitious person. This was challenged by Kirpal Singh’s representative at the Council meeting.

Kirpal Singh, on his part, has urged the Press Council to deliver its judgment. Specifically on his complaint: Whether in its opinion Narayanan has plagiarized or not?

Kirpal Singh has submitted the opinions of Khushwant Singh, a leading Indian writer and journalist, and Dalip Padgaonkar, Editor of the Times of India, on the subject of plagiarism. Some of the members supporters  of the editor even objected to why Kirpal Singh had sought the opinion of these two eminent persons, This is not surprising as Khushwant Singh’s opinion is rather tough on plagiarists:

“Plagiarism is theft committed by a writer of another’s property. No excuses can reduce the gravity of the offence. A writer caught doing so ceases to be taken seriously”.

Kirpal Singh has also informed the Tribune Trust that Narayanan is misusing his “connections” with the police to harass him. That he can use the police in private matter to harass a Tribune reader shows how close the Editor is to the police and what he must be doing to win its favor. Kirpal Singh says that two armed policemen came to his house in his absence and made enquiries about him from his family members. On persistent enquiry, the policemen revealed that they had been sent by their officer at the behest of a senior Chandigarh-based journalist.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 19, 1991