plagiarism

What is plagiarism/
If you lift a few lines from anothers  work ,it is plagiarism.If you lift huge portions from several books ,it is thesis for which  a doctorate will be awarded.
In his column in News week ,Tunku Varadarajan ( i think he is in the editorial of this prestegius magazine) has strongly defended Fareed Zakharia who was hastily suspended by two of his employers-Time and CNN following charges of plagiarism.Fareed himself and apologised and the suspension has been revoked.I read the 'plagiarised 'portions of his column .Yes they had similar lines but as Varadrajan  says they are too trivial.But what is significant is that Varadarajan alludes very subtly that the reason for the hasty action by his employers  is perhaps the fact he is a Muslim.One can not also ignore the fact that Time is a rival to Newsweek where Varadarajan has a stake

Film director Seeman was detained by the canadian police for some time for the allegedly inflammatory speeches he made there in support of the fallen Tamil rebels of Srilanka.In India ,where the Tamilnadu chief minister is soft on this issue, for fear of being branded as anti Tamil,he could get away with any such rhetoric .Post 9/11/,western countries are exremely toucy on any thing that even remotely resemnbles terrorism.The LTTE is banned there and Seeman should have known better.If the reports in Times of India are to be believed ,his lawyers have said that he had declared there that he was not a supporter of the LTTE.He had to save his skin there, after all.Once back in India,he has started making noises just like Thirumavalavan who shamelessly went to Srilanka with a team of DMK MPs.Now the Srilankan govet has permitted the internally displaced Tamils to leave the camps and these politicians and activists have lost ammunition .In Junior Vikatan,Thirumavalavan has needlessly dragged hindu religion into the issue.He comments on an unconfirmed story that Prabhakaran shot his wife and gave her a burial with Hindu religious rites .He says Prabhakaran would have never done such a thing and it was the attempt by Hindus to paint him as a staunch Hindu.What is the need for such a comment ? If he disbelieved the story,he could have stopped with saying so.
Why did he go to Srilanka with the DMK Mps like TR Balu who ,he says never allowed him to talk to the inmates of the camp?Why did he contest in alliance with the DMK which according to many like Seeman, did little to stop the carnage in Srilanka?
He should have known that Karunanidhi was never a supporter of the LTTE ( he was supporting the group headed by SRiSabaratnam who was later killed by the LTTE.Karunandhi made some noises against the IPKF but later when his government was dismissed on the ground that he gave free access to the LTTE to operate from Tamilnadu,he became nervous and when his party was mauled in the elections following the assassination of Rajiv gandhi,he became paranoid.( I still remember that in his customary new year media conference ,even Vaiko in 1996 said that he was NOT a supporter of the LTTE but of the Tamils only)Politicians were keen to distance themselves from the LTTE either because of being arrested(like Veeramani) or because of losing the elections
Karunanidhi's decision to distance himself from the LTTE springs from the realisation that the SRilanka Tamil issue was never an electoral issue.Again ,i feel ,he is right when he says that the war ended the way it did because of Prabhakaran's adamant approach in not availing himself of the opportunities that were presented before him to end the war.
Now one's heart goes to the hundreds of thousands of the Tamils who feel orphaned and are back to squre one.

My son in law,an NRI told me "one need not have to be powerful to be successful here,so why should I return?'Give me one good reason to return"..He was reacting to my suggestion to come back to India.
Well,he was right.India is a glorious country ,the birth place of Gandhi where the concept of Ahimsa is being extended to serial killers ,terrorists and rapists if they are powerful.
)A convicted killer can live in luxury in the A grade cell because of his status ,play tennis,chess,get home food because he is used to such life .He can be let out on parole to perform the rituals for a grand mother who died years ago.( (Hindu religion prescribes such rituals only to be performed by the son ,not the grand sons though)
Or he can be let out to attend to his sick mother who is found addressing social clubs while the son has a gala time drinking in a bar or attending to his flourishing busines needs.A famous hotelier after much deleberations was sentenced for ten years imprisonment for having murdered the husband of a woman whom he coveted.But he came out on bail and I am sure he can be free till his death .( when the judgement came out in what was known as the muster roll case involving huge corruption in the Madras municipal corporation after 30 years ,none, was alive to undergo the sentence.)I have never seen a politician sentenced for corruption -while a petty thief ends up in jail.If one gets a bail ,it is complete freedom
Recently,a political leader who was ruling the south of Tamilnadu (though he had no office of powewr) was charged with murder.To get a fair trial the case was transferred to another state.But he was acquitted because the witnesses turned hostile( You can not blame them.Poor witnesses had to go back to their home towns or villages to face consequences.)
Several ex miniters got the cases against them dropped after they agreed to join the ruling parties.There are allegations against even high court judges that they were involved in illegal land grabs.Why should the judges appear reluctant to declare their assets,I do not understand.
Political leaders who started as activists fighting for the deprived are now happily settled with money- spinning colleges and business interests.

I sound cynical,but can not help it.

பிரபாகரன் மரணம்

Prabhakaran is dead .But why are the political leaders of Tamilnadu reluctant to accept it?By maintaining that he is alive ,are they not denying a fitting homage that he desrves?I as a Gandhian ,have my reservations about the means he adopted to secure equal rights for the Tamils.He is a believer in Machiavalli's priciple -end justifies the means.He fought a war and in a war one has to be ruthless and he was.He died as a true ,brave warrior.He could have chosen a more comfortable life ,compromising on his principles as many of our Tamil politicians have done.He need not have undergone the hardships of living in bunkers,in jungles .
He fought against mighty armies with deadly air power and he knew he would be vanquished like many other guerilla groups .But he has brought the plight of the Tamils to the notice of the international community.Srilanka now has to put up at least a facade of granting the Tamils their due.They are being watched.