Shamika Ravi, Senior fellow at Brookings Institution, who became India’s most popular Covid-19 statistician through her daily update graphs, has come under attack, especially from a particular section of ‘intellectuals’, for alleged plagiarism.
On May 25, Indian Express published an article titled ‘A pandemic prescription’ on losses caused to the Indian economy due to Coronavirus and what steps the central and state governments should take in order to restore the economic order.
Later it came out that the article written by Ravi has ‘picked up’ cost calculations needed to minimize the pandemic from work done by another economist Karthik Muralidharan, without attribution. When pointed out, Ravi contacted Indian Express to add attribution to Murlidharan’s work in an online edition of the article.
Later, many people on social media pointed out that another section of the article was picked up from economist Paul Romer’s work Roadmap to Responsibly Reopen America, written on April 23.
Shamika Ravi contacted Express again to make necessary changes to the article and give attribution to Romer, but the newspaper decided to withdraw the piece, as it does not meet the “standards of professional integrity”.
Shamika Ravi put a public apology to Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Romer, and Indian Express, in a tweet put on March 27, 9 AM. “Regarding the IE article: there was a genuine oversight, have spoken to both @paulmromer and @karthik_econ. There are perils to working in teams but the buck stops with me. I should have done better and will strive to do so in the future,” tweeted Ravi.
Regarding the IE article: there was a genuine oversight, have spoken to both @paulmromer and @karthik_econ. There are perils to working in teams but the buck stops with me. I should have done better and will strive to do so in the future. 🙏
— Prof. Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) May 27, 2020
However, the left-liberal establishment, which was obviously not happy with Ravi and her charts exposing the failure of Maharashtra to contain the virus; and her success with the general audience (her Covid-19 update is very popular with general twitter audience and every day thousands of people thank her for putting out these graphics and charts), started hounding her.
Many economists and self-proclaimed public policy experts like Rupa Subramanya and Nitin Sethi, whose attacks sounded more of zealously rather than calling out a genuine mistake, started a tirade against Shamika Ravi. The establishment ignored the fact that Ravi took full responsibility and apologized to authors or original pieces for not giving attribution as well as to publisher of her piece.
On this, Principal Economic Advisor, who himself is a popular author, tweeted, “The highest sin in academia is to be successful with the general public or have having some real world impact. The rest is just detail……”
The highest sin in academia is to be successful with the general public or have having some real world impact. The rest is just detail……
— Sanjeev Sanyal (@sanjeevsanyal) May 29, 2020
On this, Ravi tweeted, “Lives are at stake and we need credible solutions. Calibrated attacks against me cannot be the anti-COVID strategy for MH – or any other state.” Shamika Ravi has been raising the alarm over the mounting numbers of Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra.
Sorry Kiran, this makes no sense. Maharashtra has infection prevalence rate (by testing)of 11% (highest by far) & it’s only been increasing over time! So they are way behind in testing compared to all other states, they need to test MUCH more! I’m wondering what @WHO has in mind. https://t.co/EkGcFljbff
— Prof. Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) May 16, 2020
After Express withdrew her article, Ravi humbly apologized once again.
I sincerely apologise for this, once again. 🙏 https://t.co/0xkNgHpRQE
— Prof. Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) May 27, 2020
Despite Ravi’s repeated apologies and withdrawn article, left-liberal establishment was not with her yet. A campaign to discredit her in academic community was started, and given the fact most of academia is leftist bastion, it was not tough for them to discredit her from her previous works.
Indian School of Business, where Ravi was Visiting Professor from 2005-15, asked her to remove ‘Professor at ISB’ in her bio, and said that she is not a permanent faculty but an adjunct faculty at the institute.
https://twitter.com/ISBedu/status/1266221568046194689
On this, Ravi reminded the institute that she was visiting faculty and was even awarded with professor of the year title in 2019.
1) I am not an adjunct faculty but Visiting Professor @ISBedu. Was permanent faculty from 2005-15. Have taught too many courses to keep count in 16 yrs.
2) I put out a public apology LONG before IE did anything.
3) I've not heard from ISB management.
4) Grow up.Don't get bullied. https://t.co/M1dFAtkjZV— Prof. Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) May 29, 2020
Thank you for this. It should have read "Visiting" Professor of the year.🙏 @ISBedu https://t.co/NXNEAW95HB pic.twitter.com/chGhGShzPs
— Prof. Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) May 29, 2020
Many twitter handles also slammed ISB for not standing up to Ravi is difficult times while bragging her as faculty member when she was a member of Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council.
The users also reminded that ISB lists Rajat Gupta, the executive who served jail sentence for conspiracy and securities fraud, as one of its founders.
Classless response. She has taught at ISB, and this is how you publicly flog a teacher. We haven't forgotten Rajat Gupta https://t.co/h19SeOZT7J
— Gabbar (@GabbbarSingh) May 29, 2020
I don’t know @ShamikaRavi personally at all. But it is quite something to see how wolves have come out of the woods to tear her apart, including those who practically spent time at a few BJP leaders’ feet for an opportunity with NITI Aayog. https://t.co/oc6lVVLMBh
— Rahul Pandita (@rahulpandita) May 29, 2020
It is very much evident that more than plagiarism, Professor Ravi is being attacked for calling out the Maharashtra government and her political alignment. Otherwise, the intellectuals- writers, academics, and journalists- are caught in spreading fake news and plagiarizing every day. Mrinal Pande, Ravish Kumar, Suhasini Ali, Rajdeep Sardesai- all have been caught spreading fake and misleading news many times.
@Ram_Guha wrote hundreds of books, on subjects ranging from cricket to environmentalism, and yes, history on secondary sources.
The whole commentary on Hindu texts by left is based on sec sources.
But establishment is hounding @ShamikaRavi for a mistake she already apologized.
— Amit Agrahari (@Amit_Agrahari94) May 29, 2020
If you think prolific policy walas write their own white papers and/or articles you are either being deliberately naive or facetious. Depending on others who research and provide the outline is a necessity, not driven by greed to claim headlines
— Monica Jasuja (@jasuja) May 29, 2020
Unlike Shamika Ravi who pointed out the shortcomings to Indian Express herself, leftist media’s ring leaders like Aroon Purie and Fareed Zakaria have been protected by the cabal despite accusations of plagiarism.
No one knows the last time when columnists like Sagarika Ghose, Shivam Vij, or writers like Ramchandra Guha and Romila Thapar had an ‘original’ idea. But, they are celebrated writers of for the establishment.
