{"id":39997,"date":"2019-07-03T21:25:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T15:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=39997"},"modified":"2019-07-03T21:25:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T15:55:54","slug":"zee-news-falsely-claims-mahua-moitra-plagiarised-her-maiden-parliament-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/zee-news-falsely-claims-mahua-moitra-plagiarised-her-maiden-parliament-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Zee News falsely claims Mahua Moitra plagiarised her maiden Parliament speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8220;Aap jante hai DNA mein research par sabse zyada zor diya ja sakta&#8230;diya jaata hai (You know that DNA can give&#8230;gives research the most importance),&#8221; <\/em>said Sudhir Chaudhary a few minutes into the July 3 broadcast of his flagship show, <em>Daily News and Analysis\u00a0<\/em>or more popularly,\u00a0<em>DNA.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>During the length of the 7:50-minute program, Chaudhary claimed to have discerned the &#8216;truth&#8217; behind newly-elected TMC MP Mahua Moitra&#8217;s recent speech, which he termed as &#8216;hateful&#8217;. To give context, Moitra had warned of seven &#8220;early signs of fascism&#8221; rising in India during her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-india-48755554\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">maiden speech<\/a> in the Parliament on June 25.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DNA: Liberals praised shrill speech of Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, watch analysis\" width=\"1290\" height=\"968\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2pyKMcXMsMc?start=61&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Chaudhary tweeted images of the article from where, he claimed, words were &#8220;stolen&#8221; for Moitra&#8217;s speech. <em>&#8220;The Parliament&#8217;s dignity is in danger,&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>he wrote.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"hi\">\u092f\u0939\u0940 \u0939\u0948 \u0905\u092e\u0947\u0930\u093f\u0915\u0940 \u0935\u0947\u092c\u094d\u0938\u093e\u092f\u091f \u0915\u093e \u0935\u094b \u0932\u0947\u0916 \u091c\u093f\u0938\u0947 \u0924\u0943\u0923\u092e\u0942\u0932 \u0915\u093e\u0902\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0938 \u0915\u0940 \u0938\u093e\u0902\u0938\u0926 \u092e\u0939\u0941\u0906 \u092e\u094b\u0907\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e \u0928\u0947 \u091a\u0941\u0930\u093e\u0915\u0930 \u0932\u094b\u0915 \u0938\u092d\u093e \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u0905\u092a\u0928\u0947 \u092d\u093e\u0937\u0923 \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u0907\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0947\u092e\u093e\u0932 \u0915\u0930 \u0932\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0964\u0939\u0941\u092c\u0939\u0942 \u092c\u093f\u0932\u0915\u0941\u0932 \u0935\u0939\u0940 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 \u0932\u0947\u0916 \u0938\u0947 \u0938\u0940\u0927\u0947 \u0909\u0920\u093e \u0932\u093f\u090f \u0914\u0930 \u092c\u094b\u0932 \u0926\u093f\u090f\u0964\u0938\u0902\u0938\u0926 \u0915\u0940 \u0917\u0930\u093f\u092e\u093e \u0916\u093c\u0924\u0930\u0947 \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u0939\u0948\u0964 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4iP3YieHXA\">https:\/\/t.co\/4iP3YieHXA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HxaHqqdxKS\">pic.twitter.com\/HxaHqqdxKS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sudhirchaudhary\/status\/1146124921048723457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 2, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>&#8220;Plagiarised&#8221;?<\/h2>\n<p>Chaudhary alleged that the MP&#8217;s speech was plagiarised from a 2017 article which spoke about &#8220;12 early warning signs of fascism&#8221; in Donald Trump&#8217;s America. <em>&#8220;Her speech replaced &#8216;Trump&#8217; with &#8216;Modi&#8217;,&#8221; <\/em>asserted the<em>\u00a0<\/em>journalist while holding a printout of the said article to the camera.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-40001 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/07\/zee-news.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"461\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/07\/zee-news.png 461w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/07\/zee-news-259x300.png 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The name of the article&#8217;s author &#8211; Martin Longman &#8211; is faintly visible upon a close look at the piece of paper in Chaudhary&#8217;s hands. On January 31, 2017, such an article was indeed penned by Longman, <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonmonthly.com\/2017\/01\/31\/the-12-early-warning-signs-of-fascism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published<\/a> in\u00a0<em>Washington Monthly. <\/em>The author claimed that the signs stood hung on a poster in the US Holocaust Museum.<\/p>\n<p>Many other prominent individuals &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeShobhaa\/status\/1145914858409517056\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shobha De<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MakrandParanspe\/status\/1145746885921009674\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Makarand Paranjape<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KanchanGupta\/status\/1145724231763677184\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kanchan Gupta<\/a> &#8211; had claimed Moitra&#8217;s speech was plagiarised before <em>Zee News<\/em> ran an entire show on the assertion. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vivekagnihotri\/status\/1145961593127092224\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vivek Agnihotri<\/a> also made the same allegation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Is Mahua Moitra a plagiarist? Compare <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XdRr0rDDW7\">https:\/\/t.co\/XdRr0rDDW7<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LeVeOEIFnA\">https:\/\/t.co\/LeVeOEIFnA<\/a> The words aren&#8217;t identical but the basic structure (using the Holocaust memorial poster) &amp; ideas have been lifted; instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@realDonaldTrump<\/a> she&#8217;s lambasting <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/narendramodi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@narendramodi<\/a> on similar lines.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Makarand R Paranjape (@MakrandParanspe) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MakrandParanspe\/status\/1145746885921009674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Referenced, not plagiarised<\/h2>\n<p>The &#8216;truth&#8217; about Moitra&#8217;s speech which Chaudhary claimed to have investigated,<em>\u00a0<\/em>was a misreport. Towards the end of her Parliamentary address, the MP had mentioned the source of her inspiration behind the address.<\/p>\n<p>At 9:12 minutes in the video below, she can be heard saying, <em>&#8220;In 2017, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum put up a poster in its main lobby and it contained a list of all the signs of early fascism. Each of the seven signs I have pointed to you, features on that poster.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mahua Moitra&#039;s Full Speech in Lok Sabha: TMC MP Underlines Need for Dissent in Democracy\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2fSaqYA-AnI?start=561&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Longman, in his 2017 article, had referenced the same poster\/sign that Moitra talked about. It is noteworthy that a 2017 fact-check by American website\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/holocaust-museum-warning-signs-fascism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Snopes<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>had found that the poster was not on display at the museum but was available in its gift shop.<\/p>\n<p>After a controversy was sparked by <em>Zee News\u00a0<\/em>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MakrandParanspe\/status\/1145746885921009674\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">several others<\/a>, Longman tweeted that Moitra is being &#8220;falsely accused&#8221; of plagiarism.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I\u2019m internet famous in India because a politician is being falsely accused of plagiarizing me. It\u2019s kind of funny, but right-wing assholes seem to be similar in every country.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Martin Longman (@BooMan23) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BooMan23\/status\/1146162482911817728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 2, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He reiterated the same in another tweet.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Whether they reach out to me or not, this is ridiculous. She didn\u2019t steal or plagiarize anything.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Martin Longman (@BooMan23) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BooMan23\/status\/1146295436485021696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 3, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In a press statement, Moitra clarified that her speech was inspired by <em>&#8220;the poster from the Holocaust Museum created by Sr Lawrence W Brit pointing out the 14 signs of early fascism.&#8221;<\/em> She wrote,<em> &#8220;I found seven signs relevant to India and spoke at length about each of them&#8221; <\/em>and further added that she mentioned her source during the address and <em>&#8220;plagiarism is when one does not disclose one&#8217;s source.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hq6ao57Hc7\">pic.twitter.com\/hq6ao57Hc7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MahuaMoitra\/status\/1146382116222984193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 3, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Alt News found a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hartford-hwp.com\/archives\/27\/076.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">copy<\/a> of an excerpt where Dr Britt spoke about the 14 signs. It was published in the Free Inquiry Magazine, Vol 22 no 2, on July 15, 2003.<\/p>\n<p>A speech was reported to be plagiarised by <em>Zee News <\/em>when, in fact, TMC MP Mahua Moitra had used a piece of literature as a reference and had mentioned the same during her address. After the same was pointed out to<em>\u00a0<\/em>Sudhir Chaudhary by several people, including the author of the article, he wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sudhirchaudhary\/status\/1146392471682744320\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet<\/a>,\u00a0<em>&#8220;the <s>#<\/s>TukdeTukdeGang has been demolished and is crying foul again,&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>instead of rectifying the misreport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Aap jante hai DNA mein research par sabse zyada zor diya ja sakta&#8230;diya jaata hai (You know that DNA can give&#8230;gives research the most importance),&#8221; said Sudhir Chaudhary a few minutes into the July 3 broadcast of his flagship show, Daily News and Analysis\u00a0or more popularly,\u00a0DNA.\u00a0 During the length of the 7:50-minute program, Chaudhary claimed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":40055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"an_content_type":[739],"coauthors":[141],"class_list":["post-39997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","fact_checks_claim_type-news","an_content_type-fact-check"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/07\/mahua.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39997"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40062,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39997\/revisions\/40062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39997"},{"taxonomy":"an_content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/an_content_type?post=39997"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}