Staff Correspondent
The authors of the controversial book ‘contribution of women in the liberation war’ have denied the charge of plagiarising the manuscript of the book claimed to have been written by Rokeya Kabir.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Rokeya Kabir, executive director of Nari Pragati Sangha at a press conference at the National Press Club alleged that Dr Emajuddin Ahmed former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, Jasimuddin also the vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University and Mehedi Hassan Palash a senior sub-editor of daily Inqilab in association with the officials of Liberation War Affairs Ministry plagiarised the manuscript about the contribution of women in the liberation war in 1971.
While talking to The Bangladesh Today Dr Emajuddin Ahmed said soon after publishing the book ‘contribution of women in the liberation war’ deep rooted conspiracies are being hatched by a group of self-seekers.
“I have already written a good numbers of books on different issues including politics and political science. I had no interest or intention to change the name of the book and deface the history of the contribution of women in our liberation war in 1971,” he said.
Replying to a query, he said “I myself and Dr Jasimuddin were supposed to edit the manuscript of the book. We had seen Mehedi Hasan Palash’s name as the author of the book at each page of the manuscript while editing 12 out of 13 chapters of the book. Later we handed over the manuscript to the concerned ministry and after that, we know anything regarding this book.”
In another query, he said, “how Mehedi Hasan Palash got the manuscript or how he become the author of the book is totally unknown to me. A prayer has already been sent to the Liberation War Affairs Ministry demanding immediate investigation and finding out the original culprits behind this manuscripts plagiarizing incident. Exemplary punishment must be awarded to the culprits. For ensuring punishment, the authority should take proper steps in this regard immediately.”
Talking to this correspondent Dr Jasimuddin said, “all sorts of verifications of this book including editing were conducted under the supervision of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry. So we did not know about the author of the book or about Mehedi Hasan Palash. I think, Mehedi Hasan Palash in connivance with ministry officials tried to pass himself off as author of the book.”
Meanwhile, when this correspondent talked to the controversial author of the book, Mehedi Hasan Palash said, “both the two vice-chancellors gave me this manuscript with some guidelines to edit the book. As per their directives, I had done the task and handed over the copy to them but now they are saying that I am not known to them. I had no relation with the ministry officials but there was a close relation with the two vice-chancellors during BNP-led four-party alliance government. And this was the reason for getting this task.”
Courtesy: thebangladeshtoday.com
