Speaker says sorry for lifting Prez speech

Reactingg to a report in The Sunday Express, Assembly Speaker Arun Gujarathi has apologised to former President K.R. Narayanan for plagiaris...

Reactingg to a report in The Sunday Express, Assembly Speaker Arun Gujarathi has apologised to former President K.R. Narayanan for plagiarising a portion of his speech from an address made more than a decade ago.

The apology, drafted by the Principal Secretary to the State Legislature, Vilas Patil, was sent through courier to Gujarathi at his home constituency Jalgaon here today. After perusing it, the Speaker dispatched it to Narayanan’s Delhi office.

According to sources, Gujarathi was so impressed with Narayanan’s speech that he could not resist quoting from it.

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He has blamed his staff for their mistake in not acknowledging the borrowed portions of the speech to Narayanan. The Speaker is expected to initiate action against the errant speech writers for this folly.

On February 9, The Sunday Express had reported on Gujarathi lifting portions of Narayanan’s speech made in the Central Hall of the Parliament on September 29, 1992. Narayanan’s speech was reproduced in the book Fifty Years of Parliament.

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