Rajiv Malhotra, Swapan Dasgupta JNU honorary profs

NEWDELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has appointed author Rajiv Malhotra and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Swapan Dasgupta as honorary visiting professors at its centre for media studies (CMS).

In a tweet, Malhotra has announced that he will be delivering his first lecture at the center on November 2. “As a visiting professor at JNU, I will deliver my first lecture on November 2. I probably will discuss my project on ‘Sanskrit non-translatables’. Next time I can proceed to other topics,” he said.

While JNU teachers’ association (JNUTA) members refused to comment on the development, university’s student union said that it’s the “legacy” of the administration to promote people having plagiarism charges against them.

“This is not the first time when the administration has appointed someone having plagiarism charges. It has been doing this for long now. The administration not only has appointed such people but also promoted some of them to top posts,” said JNU student union’s (JNUSU) president N Sai Balaji.

In 2015, plagiarism charges were levellel against Malhotra by historian Richard Fox Young. Young had accused Malhotra of picking up ideas from his work without acknowledgment. Malhotra, however, had denied the charges and said that “it was an attempt to silence is voice”.

Malhotra presently resides in the United States of America.

Despite several attempts JNU registrar Pramod Kumar and vice chancellor Jagadish Kumar did not respond to calls and texts.