Chintha Jerome thanks CPM leaders including CM and speaker on research paper, also thanks mentor M A Baby

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is a new allegation of plagiarism in the controversial research paper of youth commission chairperson Chintha Jerome. She was earlier criticized for insulting poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, the author of Vazhakkula (bunch of bananas). In her thesis, she wrote that Vazhakkula was written by Vyloppilli instead of Changampuzha.

The allegation is that Chintha Jerome’s thesis copied the idea from an article published in 2010 on the website Bodhi Commons and the author of Vazhakkula was wrongly mentioned in that article. The Save University Campaign Committee has informed that they will file a new complaint with the Kerala VC. The critics of Chintha said there is a fundamental mistake in her thesis where she has written that Vazhakkula was penned by Vyloppilli while it was originally written by poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai.

Meantime, she has also been criticized for thanking Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM leaders at the place where she should have thanked the individuals and institutions who helped her in helping the research paper. The reason for thanking the chief minister is for his trust and support. Apart from the chief minister, she also thanked M V Govindan, K N Balagopal, A N Shamseer, E P Jayarajan, P K Sreemathy and M Swaraj. She addressed senior CPM leader M A Baby as her ‘mentor' in the research paper.

The first controversy was that she wrote in her thesis that the poem Vazhakkula was penned by Vyloppilli while it was originally written by poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai. Her guide was Kerala University’s pro vice-chancellor.

She was caught up in an embarrassment over claiming 17 months arrears based on her revised honorarium, amounting to Rs 8 lakh, at a time when the state was facing acute financial crunches.