‘This is ridiculous. She didn’t steal or plagiarize anything’: Martin Longman on Mahua Moitra plagiarism row

In a somewhat comical turn of events, a section of Right-wing commentators have accused Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra of plagiarism. The accusation is that Moitra’s maiden Parliament speech was lifted off this piece by Martin Longman in Washington Monthly that references ‘Early Warning Signs of Fascism’ from the US Holocaust Museum. 

Meanwhile, Zee New anchor Sudhir Chaudhary decided to host an entire primetime news segment on the issue. He presented some ‘shocking details’ of Moitra’s so-called plagiarism. “Humaara research Mahua Moitra ki research par bhaari pad gaya…aur un ki poll khul gayi [our research will expose Mahua Moitra],” he said with a smirk.

Moitra’s speech, of course, was anything but an instance of plagiarism. The ‘early signs of fascism’ bit is a sign at the US Holocaust Museum and Moitra acknowledges this in her speech. The sign is almost a meme today and the joke is on the gents who thought Moitra had actually come up with it herself before stumbling on the Washington Monthly article. Her speech simply places the salient points on the sign in the Indian context. One may disagree with it, but calling it plagiarised is silly to say the least. Longman also took to Twitter and rubbished the allegations against Moitra and said that she was “being falsely accused of plagiarizing me”.