Poet's family demands withdrawal of PhD to Kerala CPM woman leader for wrong reference

Kerala Youth Commission chairperson Chintha Jerome of the CPM is caught up in a trouble with the family of a celebrated Malayalam poet demanding that the PhD degree awarded to her by Kerala University should be withdrawn owing to a wrong reference in the doctoral thesis about the author of a popular work of the poet.

Jerome mentioned in her doctoral thesis that 'Vazhakkula' (bunch of bananas), a popular work of poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, was written by another known poet Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon. The work was submitted in 2021 and cleared by her guide Kerala University former pro-vice-chancellor P P Ajayakumar as well as an expert panel that awarded the PhD. But the goof-up came out recently only.

Krishna Pillai's family has now demanded that Jerome's PhD should be withdrawn. The poet's daughter Lalitha told a section of media that it was improper to award PhD to one who submitted a work containing factual error. Students may go wrong. It is for teachers to correct them. Hence the teachers who cleared the thesis containing factual error should be held more responsible, she said.

Save University Campaign Committee, a forum that works against irregularities at universities, demanded a review of the PhD awarded to Jerome. The committee also suspected plagiarism in the work.

The issue had also raised questions over the PhDs being awarded by Kerala University especially since there were allegations of plagiarism in doctoral thesis works of Kerala University earlier also.

The row over the PhD work of Jerome had come out at a time when Jerome is caught up in an embarrassment over claiming 17 months arrears based on her revised honorarium, amounting to Rs. 8 lakh, at a time when the state was facing acute financial crunches. Jerome is also a member of the ruling CPM state committee in Kerala.