The ruling BJP is having a field day with Congress minister Veerappa Moily’s plagiarism scandal. Last week, Moily was called out by a daily after he ‘copied portions’ from another opinion piece, from the very same newspaper. Even professional copy-paste artists are stunned. ‘Why steal from the source, you are writing for’, they ask.
Moily, has however, taken note of his ‘error’ and accepts he should’ve credited the guy who he had ‘borrowed from’. Unfortunately, that’s all you need to get out of a plagiarism accusation. An apology. Plagiarism is a ‘soft crime’ —you’ll have not have commandos dropping through the roof. And even if the issue makes to national headlines (which it has) Mr Moily’s offence will soon be forgotten.
Best-selling author Amish Tripathi notes: “People have a rather short memory. And even if someone is shamed publicly for plagiarism, it might not work because people tend to forget.” But an apology is in order to the likes of Amish Tripathi — a class of workers involved in the constant struggle to bring out copy filled with fresh ideas, analysis and finally, opinion. They hate being robbed.
“An obvious answer is this. Most of our politicians are not real readers, and they’re certainly not writers,” begins Anil Dharkar, author, columnist and the man organising the Mumbai International Literary Festival. “They then blindly apply this persona to the rest of the country and assume others don’t read too much either. Writing is a skill acquired over time and sadly, most of them don’t have this skill. They believe nobody will notice the ‘borrowing’.”
Dharkar continues: “Let’s use the word borrowing here because ‘plagiarism’ is not something politicians understand. I know for a fact that speeches too come from staff, who are bereft of ideas as well. “Also, politicians and their coterie are used to getting away with so much, in the wider context. There’s a spillover of that characteristic into writing... that they’ll get away with it. Writing is hard work you know... and when you have none of life’s worries, you come to believe that copying ideas is not a big deal at all.”
Sadly, that’s the truth. A source from one of India’s leading publishing houses says, “Good writing comes from standing in queues, sweltering in the Sun. When you have a red light on top of your car and you’re ushered through traffic, there are not many real ideas coming into your head. You are asking me if netas should be stopped from writing? There are a few who should never be allowed near keyboards.”
K.C. Singh, India’s former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Iran, agrees with most of the above. “Arey, it’s all outsourced. It’s given off to some guy and that person takes the easiest path. This often happens in speeches, not so much in writing for newspapers and other media. I mean, how many politicians do you think have the time to sit down and write 900-word pieces... it takes time, research... at least five hours.
“All I can say is this... check their live interviews, the spoken word. They’re very different from what comes out on print. Critical discourse in India has lost its quality and we’re seeing this happen both inside and outside Parliament. Just watch the debates and you’ll know what I’m talking about.”
