A library and science centre built in the name of rationalist icon EV Ramasamy 'Periyar', who championed critical thinking, is at the centre of a political storm over allegations that its shelves have been stocked with books by fictitious authors, questionable publishers, and what appears to be amateurish content generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
The controversy over the procurement of books at Periyar Arivulagam in Coimbatore has snowballed into a political slugfest between Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and the main opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), with both sides accusing each other of responsibility for the questionable purchases.
The alleged scam was exposed by acclaimed Tamil writer Perumal Murugan in a detailed article in the online magazine Sindhai, in which he claimed that thousands of books from little-known or possibly fictitious publishers had been purchased at exorbitant prices, despite containing glaring factual errors, grammatical mistakes, and what appeared to be AI-generated writing.
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Murugan said, "The publisher called Agal Vilakku has a fake address, so is the case of Phoenix Publications. These appear to have been created just to supply these books."
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Murugan's biggest concern is the presence of nearly 1,800 books from a publisher called Agal Vilakku, which he says he had never encountered despite spending four decades in the literary world. These books occupy a substantial section of the Tamil collection on the fourth floor. Many are hardbound and carry price tags running into Rs 1,400 and more.
One example cited by Murugan is a 300-page book titled Naladiyar Vazhkaiyin Vazhkatti, attributed to an author called Surya Balu and priced at Rs 1,445. The book describes Naladiyar as a famous Tamil poet and philosopher, whereas the work is a collection of 400 quatrains attributed to Jain ascetics whose individual identities are not known.
Another book, Madurai Kanchi Oru Ilakkiya Payanam, attributed to Dev Nilan and priced at Rs 1,395, makes the astonishing claim that Madurai Kanchi was written by a king called Madurai Koozhathip Peruvazhuthi. The accepted author of the Sangam-era work is the poet Mangudi Maruthanar.
A book titled Bharathiyar Kathaigal, attributed to Manisha Saravanan, even credits Bharathiyar with a story, Sadhanaiyin Mugam, whose writing style Murugan questions.
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Another example is Keeladi Seppum Varalaru by Jothi Hariharan, which carries a photograph of a large Nandi sculpture as an artefact discovered at the archaeological site.
A book on Tamil Nadu by Dhanalakshmi Arjun contains further glaring historical inaccuracies. It identifies Muthuvelu Subbaiya Iyer as the state's first chief minister in 1947 and refers to former chief minister M Karunanidhi as MK Ramasamy.
The list of purported authors is equally striking. Among the names Murugan identified are Trisha Vijay, Vijay Adithan, Monika Surya, Monika Ravi, Vijay Balu, Jothi Saravanan, Jothi Hariharan and Manisha Saravanan.
The titles themselves raise questions about repetitive and formulaic content, with several books carrying variations of themes around urban water management, public health, pollution and civic administration.
The books carry an email address, akalvilakkupathipagam@gmail.com, but no telephone number.
The seven-storey Periyar Arivulagam, spread across seven acres and built at a cost of nearly Rs 300 crore, was conceived and constructed during the previous DMK regime and completed under the present TVK government. Chief Minister Vijay inaugurated it on October 16. The DMK had staked credit for the project and called Vijay inaugurating it a mere photo opportunity.
Questioning the quality of the content, Murugan said: "They look like loose writing by a mentally unstable person. There are mistakes and grammatical errors in every sentence."
Murugan, who was part of the book recommendation committee appointed by the previous DMK government to pick books for the literature section, has also called for an investigation into the procurement.
However, he has not clarified whether the books now under scrutiny were actually recommended by the committee or whether they were procured without its knowledge. This is an important aspect that the proposed investigation will need to establish.
