HUNGARY PRESIDENT QUITS IN PLAGIARISM SCANDAL

HUNGARY PRESIDENT SCHMITT
RESIGNS IN PLAGIARISM SCANDAL

www.bbc.co.uk - Hungary’s President Pal Schmitt says he is resigning, after being stripped of his doctorate over plagiarism.  Mr Schmitt, elected in 2010, said “my personal issue divides my beloved nation rather than unites it”. “It is my duty to end my service and resign my mandate as president,” he told parliament. Last week, Budapest’s Semmelweis University revoked his 1992 award after finding that much of his thesis had been copied. Mr Schmitt, 69, won gold medals for fencing at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games. He was elected to the largely ceremonial role of president for a five-year term, with strong backing from the conservative ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The university said whole passages of his thesis about the modern Olympic Games had been copied from the work of two other academics. He denied wrongdoing but protesters stepped up the pressure for him to resign.

Schmitt has been the target of public ire over the past few days when he chose to stay in office despite evidence that he had transposed practically his entire doctoral thesis 20 years ago.  Schmitt’s thesis “didn’t meet the ethical and professional criteria of scientific work,” Tivadar Tulassay, the rector of Semmelweis University was quoted as saying by Bloomberg, after the university stripped the president of his doctoral title. Schmitt has headed the Hungarian Olympic Committee since 1990 and was vice president of the International Olympic Committee from 1995 to 1999. He was a deputy state secretary for sports under communism in the 1980s. He also served as Hungary’s ambassador to Spain in 1993-1997, and to Switzerland in 1999-2002. He was Hungary’s fourth democratically-elected president since the collapse of communism in 1989. He told parliament he would appeal against the decision which revoked his doctorate.

Hungarian President Pal Schmitt resigned Monday because of a plagiarism scandal regarding a doctoral dissertation he had written 20 years ago. A committee of the Budapest’s Semmelweis University last week revoked his 1992 award after finding that much of his thesis - on the topic of the modern Olympic Games - was based entirely on earlier work by Bulgarian researcher Nikolai Georgiev. It is assumed that a president should set an example of truthfulness, but the tendency to deceive is very powerful.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Prabhupada: The thing is that one who is cheating you, he will cheat in twelve rupees, also he will cheat in fifty rupees.
Aksayananda: Yes, I know.
Prabhupada: He knows how to cheat you.
Aksayananda: Yes, they’re expert.
(...)
Prabhupada: Cheating is one of the qualifications of the conditioned soul. ... Vipralipsa, vipralipsa. Bhrama, pramada, vipralipsa, karunatmika. So cheating is a qualification of the conditioned soul. Everyone is expert in cheating more or less. That is qualification. People take pride, “Oh, I have cheated. I am so expert that I have cheated.” When the lawyers make some agreement between the two lawyers, simply think “How I can cheat you?. How can I cheat you?” That’s all. The more one lawyer is expert in cheating, he is big lawyer. ... This is the world. Vañcaka-vañci. Whole world is going on, my Guru Maharaja used to say that one is cheater, another is cheated.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Room Conversation in Vrindavana
September 6, 1976 - 760906rc.vrn
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International