Renowned ecologist S Faizi has accused author and scholar Vandana Shiva of plagiarism after a recent article by the latter in Mathrubhumi was strikingly similar to one that the former wrote a few months ago.
Vandana Shiva's article titled 'High time Plachimada Bill got Presidential consent', had only a single mention of Faizi but the last five paragraphs at the end bore resemblance to Faizi's article for The Statesman.
Some lines were complete mirror images:
There is absolutely no conflict between the NGT Act and the Bill, primarily due to the difference in the temporal coverage. In fact by filling the time gap in regard to the Plachimada locale the Bill provides an excellent complement to the NGT Act.
Some lines had minor differences:
The Statesman - The Home Ministry has iterated the challenge of the cola company that the State Assembly has no legislative competence to enact legislation to redress the damage in the areas of health, agriculture, labour (loss), animal husbandry, groundwater etc, all listed in the State List (II under the Seventh Schedule). This poses a serious question on Centre- State relations, and all democratic forces should be concerned about this.
Mathrubhumi - The Home Ministry repeating the challenge of the Cola company that the State Assembly has no legislative competence to enact legislation to redress the damage in the areas of health, agriculture, labour (loss), animal husbandry, groundwater etc, all listed in the State List (II under the 7th Schedule) poses a serious question on Centre-State relations, and all democratic forces should be concerned about this.
Taking to Facebook, Faizi wrote:
Gosh! Didnt the editor notice that the 5 paras prior to the last are a repeat of my article in the Statesman in Dec, with the customary quote only in one place..the rest of the copying is without quotes or attribution..Besides, much water has flowed aftr i wrote abt the home ministry letter 'requesting'....Well, that is Dr Vandana, the disciple of the double Sree. Link to my article also given below…I have no complaints, I consider all my writings as copyright free, even ownership free..(sic)