Kasaragod: Assam University, a central university in Silchar, has refused to investigate a plagiarism complaint against the PhD thesis of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's additional private secretary Ratheesh Kaliyadan. Instead of initiating an inquiry as per UGC regulations, the university — after sitting on the complaint for 20 months — replied to an RTI query saying  "the matter has been informed" to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

On July 6, 2023, Shino P Jose sent Assam University a detailed complaint with comparative documents proving that Ratheesh Kaliyadan's thesis was "almost entirely copied" from the PhD thesis of Rajesh R V, who worked on "how well a critical thinking-based teaching method works for social studies in Kerala's higher secondary schools".

Kaliyadan — the only doctorate holder in Pinarayi Vijayan's 21-member CMO team — did a similar study but on media education instead of social studies. He submitted his thesis to Assam University in November 2014, whereas Rajesh submitted his thesis to the University of Mysore in January 2014.

When there was no action against Kaliyadan, Jose sent an RTI query to Assam University to know the status of his complaint on December 19, 2023. "Only after the Central Information Commission intervened and scheduled a hearing on February 14, did the university send me its reply (on March 4)," he said.

When asked about the action taken on the complaint, Assam University replied: "The matter has been informed to the office of the Chief Minister, Assam, and to the UGC." The reply was bizarre because it made a complaint of academic plagiarism look as if it were some political issue between two chief ministers, said Jose, an assistant professor and Kannur University Senate member.

To a third question asking if any investigation is pending against Kaliyadan, Assam University said in its RTI reply that the "matter has been forwarded to the UGC for further investigation into it". Ratheesh Kaliyadan, a native of Payyannur and journalism teacher at the Government Girls' Higher Secondary School in Thalassery, earned his PhD under Prof K V Nagaraj. He is a prominent academic who helped establish journalism departments across multiple universities and held key roles in the UGC and other higher education bodies. At that time, he was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Assam University. When contacted, Prof Nagaraj told Onmanorama that "back then" in 2014, "we did not have the tools to check for plagiarism", and refused to elaborate, adding only: "What will happen will happen."

A simple Google search of random paragraphs from Kaliyadan's thesis threw up the sources from which he lifted. It was not just from Rajesh's PhD thesis, on which he relied word by word, sentence by sentence and page by page for his Introduction (Chapter I), Review of Literature (Chapter II), and Methodology (Chapter III). Surprisingly, Kaliyadan borrowed chunks from Rajesh's thesis even for his Analysis of his data (Chapter IV) and Summary and Conclusion (Chapter V).

When he did not lift from Rajesh's thesis, he found abstracts of papers published in reputed journals compelling enough to reproduce them as they are - sometimes even using the first person pronouns the original researchers used in their papers.

In the review of literature, he has reproduced the entire 222-word abstract on 'Locating Whiteness in Journalism Pedagogy' by Sonya M Aleman published by 'Critical Studies in Media Communication' in 2014. Then he reproduced the entire 232-word abstract of Karl Dehli's paper on 'Media literacy and neo-liberal government: pedagogies of freedom and constraint', published by 'Pedagogy, Culture & Society' in 2009. Kaliyadan's thesis also has the 197-word abstract of the paper 'The hierarchy of journalistic cultural authority' by Kimberly Meltzer published in 'Journalism Practice' in 2009.

In the section, 'History of media education around the world', Kaliyadan's thesis has 10 pages on France, Great Britain, Russia, Canada, Australia, America, and Germany, lifted straight from Alexander Fedorov's book 'On Media Education'. He has not even bothered to change the citations mentioned in the book or include them in his references. Apart from text, tables and illustrations from Rajesh's thesis have also been reproduced in the same shades and shapes.

Onmanorama ran his most important chapter - Summary and Conclusion - on plagiarism detection software 'turnitin.com' and found a 41% similarity with sources on the internet and publications. The software found 51 missing citations (28%) - matches that have quotation marks but no in-text citation, and 13% matches which were not cited or quoted.

That said, Kaliyadan did conduct a study on journalism students in Class XII at Government Girls' Higher Secondary School, Thalassery, and Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Kathiroor. His research tested the effectiveness of critical thinking and critical pedagogy — and deemed them effective. The study earned him his PhD.

When contacted, Kaliyadan questioned why an "old story was being dug up now". He declined to explain how the plagiarised content ended up in his thesis. "I cannot recall," he said, adding that he had addressed the allegations in a Facebook post in 2023 when the controversy first surfaced.

How Assam University abdicated its duty
The University Grants Commission (UGC) lays out a clear process for handling plagiarism complaints in its 2018 Regulations on Academic Integrity. Assam University ignored it.

The regulations define four levels of similarities.

Level 0: Up to 10% – No penalty.

Level 1: 10% to 40% – Re-submission within six months.

Level 2: 40% to 60% – One-year debarment.

Level 3: Above 60% – Cancellation of registration.

Upon receiving a plagiarism complaint, the Departmental Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP) - comprising the Head of the Department, a senior academician from another department, and an expert in plagiarism tools - must investigate and submit its report with recommended penalties within 45 days.

The Institutional Academic Integrity Panel - headed by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dean, or a senior academician - must review the DAIP's findings, conduct a hearing with the accused, and submit its final report to the Vice-Chancellor/ Principal in another 45 days.

The entire process should take no more than 90 days. Assam University, however, sat on the complaint for 20 months without even initiating the first step.

UGC guidelines for uploading theses to the 'Shodh Ganga' digital repository require universities to ensure compliance with copyright laws and intellectual property rights. The UGC also mandates that universities take all necessary steps to deter plagiarism in submitted theses.

These two sets of guidelines make it clear that maintaining academic integrity is the university’s responsibility — not that of the UGC or the Chief Minister.

Jose, the complainant, said similarities in Kaliyadan's thesis ranged from 60% to 80%. If the university failed to act, he would take the matter to court. "I have conveyed my disappointment with the university to UGC chairman Prof Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar and Union Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi," said Jose, who is also the state secretary of Kerala Private College Teachers' Association, an organisation affiliated with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

Roles of Kaliyadan 

The alumnus of Assam University identifies himself as an academician, activist, and author. After he was awarded the doctorate, the LDF government made him the Academic Project Officer of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, a centrally sponsored scheme for the development of secondary education in public schools; educational expert at the General Education Rejuvenation Mission; and Executive Director of State Council for Open and Lifelong Education (SCOLE) Kerala, apart from being Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's man Friday.