MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan ‘plagiarises’ poem, claiming his wife penned it; called out by original author

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been called out for ‘plagiarism’ over a poem he shared on Twitter last month when his father-in-law passed away.

Chouhan took to Twitter to share a few lines of a Hindi poem titled ‘Bauji’, claiming it was written by his wife Sadhna Singh four days after his father-in-law - Ghanshyam Das Masani - died on November 18.

A Madhya-Pradesh based writer Bhumika Birthare, has, however, claimed it was her poem. ‘The poem is written by me, not by ur beloved wife,’ she posted on Twitter

"Kindly give the credit to me sir. The poem is written by me and its title is ‘Daddy’ and not ‘Baauji’. Don't do injustice to my feelings for my father," she said in a series of tweets.

"On November 21, I posted the poem on Facebook after coming back to Bhopal. My friend shared a screenshot, saying the Chief Minister's wife - Sadhna Singh - had shared the poem in a WhatsApp group... I just replied with a smiley. But after that I came to know that the Chief Minister had also tweeted the poem, giving the credit to his wife. I have strong objection to this...," she added, as per an NDTV report.

Former union minister and senior Congress leader Arun Yadav took to Twitter to criticise Chouhan: "The BJP is an expert in changing names. Earlier, they used to change the name of the schemes introduced by the Congress regime, but now Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is showing off a poem written by somebody else as that of his wife's."