Clearing the air about the controversy surrounding the plagiarism of a Malayalam poem, writer and teacher, Deepa Nisanth on Sunday in an interview to Newsrupt apologised to writer S Kalesh for causing him 'hurt through her actions'.
The controversy started after Kalesh made a revelation that a poem he had written and published in 2011 had recently been published in a the journal run by AKPCTA (All Kerala Private College Teacher's Association) under Deepa's name. Though Deepa had initially refused to apologise and claimed that she was being targeted, it was soon revealed that activist MJ Sreechitran had sent her the poem.
Deepa now says that Sreechitran told her that the poem was his and Kalesh had plaigirised it. Though throughout the video interview, Deepa does not take Sreechitran's name, she keeps referring to him as 'friend'.
Deepa in the interview, said, “Till the previous day, my friend (Sreechithran) told me that it was he who wrote the poem and that Kalesh stole it from him.”
She went on to say that a few years back when Sreechithran showed her the poem saying that he had written it, she had loved it and wanted the poem to be published in his name.
“At that time he had refused. Then later on, the discussion about the poem came up once again and at that time, Sreechithran said that the poem can be published but that it has to be done in my name,” said Deepa.
Deepa says that she regrets committing this mistake. “Especially since I’m a teacher as well as a writer, this action of mine has come to a point where all my writings will be questioned,” she added.
“It is my fault alone that an innocent man like Kalesh had to come under the suspicion of the society at least for a little while,” said Deepa.
She also said that the reason she never apologised to Kalesh in her Facebook posts was because she had blindly believed Sreechithran's version that it had been his poem.
“I admit that it was my fault in the first place to publish someone else’s poem in my name and because of this, I didn’t want to drag my friend’s name in this controversy,” she said.
“But Sreechithran’s Facebook post in which he puts the entire blame on my head has betrayed me. Now I feel like I should expose all that happened,” Deepa adds.
Deepa also states that she tried to contact Kalesh when the controversy came up, but he never answered her calls or replied to her messages. “I don’t blame him for that considering that I had put him through a lot of problems. I regret that and I apologise for that,” said Deepa.
It was on Thursday that Deepa Nisanth, teaching at the Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur, was accused of plagiarising a poem.
As the controversy continued to boil, both Deepa and Sreechithran had come up with long apology posts for hurting Kalesh but had not admitted to stealing the poem. This is the first time that Deepa has issued an apology to Kalesh.