Guv to seek views from Kerala Univ VC on CPI-M youth leader PhD thesis row

Thiruvananthapuram: With the controversy over errors in the PhD thesis of Kerala State Youth Commission Chairperson and CPI-M youth leader Chintha Jerome continuing, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who is also the Chancellor of state universities, will seek an explanation from the Kerala University Vice Chancellor after receiving complaints in this regard.

This move has come at a time when the CPI-M top brass is mulling a scrutiny of the PhD thesis and has given the nod to the Kerala University to constitute a four-member team to scrutinise it.

This special team will submit its report to the University Syndicate, which will then be passed to the Senate. The Senate, in turn, will advise the Chancellor on what needs to be done.

Jerome’s dissertation is titled “The ideological foundation of Malayalam commercial cinema in the neoliberal times”, for which she was awarded a PhD in English Literature from the Kerala University in 2021.

Detractors of Jerome have come out with a fundamental mistake in her thesis where she has written that Malayalam poem titled “Vazhakkula” was penned by Vyloppilli while it was originally written by another hugely popular poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai.

Jerome’s principal guide for her thesis was the then Pro V-C of Kerala University P.P. Ajayakumar.

Her fellow youth leaders in the CPI-M are defending her to the hilt by stating that it is just a technical error and spelling mistakes are not a serious issue as this is not the first time such things are happening.

Meanwhile for the first time after this controversy erupted, Jerome broke her silence and admitted that what happened was a human error.

“The reference to mistake that has occurred does not have relevance to the topic of the thesis. It was just said in context. I am thankful to those who have pointed out this error and this is just a human error. I am going to bring my thesis as a book and in it, the necessary corrections will be made,” she said.

Since this issue surfaced last week, every day there are protests and marches being taken out by the student and youth wing of the Congress.

Social media is buzzing with hilarious posts, many of which have become viral now.

Numerous complaints have also surfaced against this and with the Assembly session all set to resume its sitting shortly, all eyes will be on the Congress-led opposition.