Adani CFO Taunts Rahul Gandhi For Plagiarism

Rahul Gandhi, who as usual, attempted to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire businessman Gautam Adani with his potshots, was caught off-guard by Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Robbie Singh. Gandhi recently wrote an opinion piece for The Indian Express against the monopolistic tendencies of India's big business under the Modi rule - he was obviously referring to the Adani Group. Robbie Singh took to social media platform 'X' to point out that Gandhi's op-ed was nothing but plagiarism of British Philosopher Edmund Burke.

"It appears @IndianExpress re-published Edmund Burke on India - by Cambridge University Press 05 December 2012 under a new pen name! #plagiarism Although one can say let us empower & strengthen @CCI_India Why copy a 12 year old chapter in a book?" Robbie posted from his handle.

Gandhi's op-ed titled "A New Deal For Indian Business: Match-fixing monopoly vs fairplay business — time to choose freedom over fear," which critiques monopolistic control in India and appeals to the business community to resist the concentration of power among a few, is said to be plagiarised as it heavily borrows from Chapter 13 of Edmund Burke on India, published online by the Cambridge University Press in 2012. Not only that, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekar had written a similar article in 2009, which he posted on a blog, critiquing the then Congress led UPA government. Then, Chandrashekar had emphasized the need to “support diverse businesses, not just a few giants." Headline of Chandrasekar's opinion piece read: "New Deal For India."

Adani Group CFO was not the only one who may have caught Gandhi's plagiarism. 'X' handle @prettypadmaja (nearly 40K followers) pointed out that someone who wrote on behalf of Gandhi just used an AI tool. "This is Plagiarism, just read two lines and realized this article is a smartly copied view of Chapter 13—Edmond Burke on India - published online by Cambridge University Press on 05 December 2012 and later improved by one of the AI platforms. There is no need to read further. From Farmer to Meson to Potter to Driver to now AUTHOR ????????," @prettypadmaja posted.

Rahul Gandhi’s article discusses how the East India Company wielded influence over its colony India and went on to put the spotlight on the maligned business tycoons of India without naming them. It concluded with the promise of a ‘New Deal’ to shape the business environment in India.

It closely resembles themes and rhetoric of Burke’s work, say critics. Bruke wrote specifically on issues of foreign monopolistic control over India and the detrimental effects of monopolies on society’s social and economic fabric. The similarity between the two texts, particularly in the framing of monopolistic entities as exploitative and the analogy of a weakened “motherland” suffering under corporate subjugation has led to people pointing out that the content was not entirely original. Gandhi is alleged to have used Burke's work with only a change in context to refer to modern Indian monopolies.

It is now being speculated that Gandhi may have got the piece ghostwritten by someone who could have allegedly employed AI tools to refine and enhance the language, framing, and structure. AI writing tools and apps are widely available on the internet.

@arunpudur with 114 k followers posted: "So @RahulGandhi plagiarized the article and then used AI to make a few changes."

Rahul Gandhi, India's leader of opposition while posing as an advocate for India’s modern business interests, failed to mention in his opinion piece that his writing could have been influenced by Burke’s ideas on colonial exploitation.