Plagiarism allegations by Sudhir Chaudhary baseless and malicious, Mahua Moitra deposes before Delhi Court

A Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate Court today recorded the pre-summoning statement of TMC Member of Parliament, Mahua Moitra in her criminal defamation case against Zee News, Editor in Chief, Sudhir Chaudhary..Mahua Moitra had filed the criminal defamation case against Chaudhary for alleging that Moitra’s June 25 speech on the ‘Seven Signs of Fascism’ in the Parliament was plagiarized..Calling the allegations of plagiarism “false”, “baseless” and “malicious”, Mahua Moitra today deposed before MM Preeti Parewa,.“The words spoken by the Respondent (Sudhir Chaudhary) on national television were ..intended to severely and irreversibly damage and lower my credibility, reputation and impeccable integrity.”.Iterating the facts that led to the criminal defamation, Moitra began,.“On June 25, 2019, I delivered a speech in the Parliament when I attempted to indicate how the ruling national dispensation had been conducting itself in a manner wherein it had brought about a situation which was contemplated by a poster in the Holocaust Museum in the USA which contained several signs of fascism.”.She added,.“I co-related seven such signs of fascism to the prevalent situation that had been brought about by the ruling dispensation and are as following:.1. Superficial Nationalism2. Disdain for Human Rights3. Media control4. Obsession with National Security5. Intertwining of Religion and Government6. Disdain for Intellectuals and Arts7. Erosion of Independent of Electoral System.”.Moitra asserted that her speech, she “specifically mentioned and attributed” that these signs were taken from a longer list of signs available on the poster..“..I proceeded to further elaborate in the Indian context. At no point of time did I ever claimed to have coined the seven terms myself.“, she said..Moitra referred to articles published by platforms like BBC, The Hindu, The Wire and The Hindu Businessline and deposed that her speech was “very well received and lauded“..“On July 2, Sudhir Chaudhary who claims to be a journalist and is the Editor in Chief of Zee News broadcasted a segment covering on speech.“, she added..Moitra alleged that in his evening prime time show, DNA, which is aired all over India, Chaudhary personally attacked her for the speech and made “defamatory imputations and comments” against her, both in her personal and professional capacity..“Such attach was towards my personal research skills in particular.. The respondent in such broadcast falsely alleged, with the knowledge that these allegations are false, that I plagiarized my speech from an article authored by Mr Martin Longman.. titled ‘These are the 12 Early Warning Signs of Fascism’..“.Moitra submitted that to “sensationalize” the news, Chaudhary claimed that “shocking facts” were found out about her speech and that she had been “caught” and “exposed“..“The respondent further maliciously and repeatedly claimed that I had ‘stolen’ the content of my speech and he also repeatedly labelled the act as ‘theft’. The respondent with malicious intent, both insinuated and directly claimed that I had ‘copy-pasted’ my speech from Mr Longman’s article. He further maliciously claimed that I have copied the words of the article, word for word, and included then in my speech and that I had merely replaced ‘America’ with ‘India’..The respondent also made allegations that I was the kind of politician who steals views from foreigners for speeches made in Parliament.”.She added,.“Mr Sudhir Chaudhary deliberately and malevolently distorted the facts, knowing that such distortions were false, by playing out the edited portions of my speech and leaving out the part where I expressly attributed the signs to the aforesaid poster.”.She stated that this segment was also published on social media site such as YouTube by Zee News as well as Chaudhary on Twitter..Moita thus asserted that after the show was aired, she received several calls from friends and well wishers who expressed their “dismay at what was described as ‘cowardly act’ of plagiarism’..”..“Several comments expressing shock and dismay were also made by certain right-thinking members of public..”.Referring to specific instances, she added,.“..Mr Jaydeep Galla approached me in the Parliament premises and indicated his disappointed at my purported act of plagiarizing my maiden speech. Similarly, Varun Thomas Mathews, an advocate practising in Delhi and also my brother-in-law spoke to me .. told me that he was extremely shocked to watch the episode..and learn that I had plagiarized my speech. Mr Ritesh Pandey, MP, also met me in Parliament and stated that he really liked my speech and was shocked to learn that it was plagiarized.”.Moitra also deposed that Martin Longman himself attributed these signs to the same poster and even came out in her support on social media. Several fact-checking websites and news outlets also refuted allegations of plagiarism levelled by Chaudhary against her..The malicious intent of Chaudhary is also apparent from the fact neither the respondent not any representative of Zee News ever contacted her to seeks comments and afford her an opportunity to state her stand, Moitra said..In spite of everything, the broadcast was not taken down and the statement was not retracted and was still available, harming her “painstakingly built reputation“, she alleged..She thus concluded,.“The baseless and false allegations made by the respondent, which were false to his knowledge, and deliberate reiteration of such false allegation despite clarification from the alleged source i.e. Mr Martin Longman has already caused irreversible and irreparable damage to my name and credibility, in my personal and public image.”.Mahua Moitra was represented by Advocates Shadaan Farasat, Adit S Pujari..The matter would be heard next on August 1.