Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad

message: There was a famous fraudster in Australia some time ago who was the grandson of Rajendra Prasad.  Apart from that, his contributions to the world of psychiatry were entirely made up.  See this article on the website of Australian national broadcaster ABC for details:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s11681.htm
His name was Ashoka Prasad.  It seems highly likely that this Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad is the same person.  
A similar comment has been added to the Rajendra Prasadpage Atticus Finch 03:41, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Ashoka Prasad / Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad

message: This remarkable page -- the main source specified for the article -- tells us that 
His academic distinctions are as below:
1. M.B.B.S ( Kanpur University , 1976 )
2. Specialization in Pediatrics ( Ireland , 1977 )
3. Ph.D ( Beliard College , Oxford , 1980)
4. M.R.C. Psych. ( London 1983 )
5. F.R.C.P ( Glasgow , 1984)
6. D.Phil ( Oxford 1985 )
7. D.Sc ( St. Andrews Scotland Open University 1985 )
8. F.R.C.P ( Ireland , 1985 )
9. L.L.M ( Harvard ,1987 )
10. Bar - at - law ( Lincolus Inn. , London 1989 )
11. M.A ( Anthropology , Columbia 1989 )
12. Ph.D ( Cambridge ,1993 )
13. F.R. His. S ( London 1995 )
14. F.R.G.S ( London 1995 )
15. F.R.A.I ( London 1995 )
16. C. Biol ., F.I Biol ( London 1997 )
17. C.Math F.I.M.A ( London , 1997 )
18. Honourary Doctorate , Natal ( South Africa , 2000 )
19. F.R.C.Path ( London 2000 )
Now I'm a simple fellow, and I don't claim to know what all of that hifalutin stuff means. But among it, the following appear to be academic degrees:
1. M.B.B.S ( Kanpur University , 1976 )
3. Ph.D ( Beliard College , Oxford , 1980)
6. D.Phil ( Oxford 1985 )
7. D.Sc ( St. Andrews Scotland Open University 1985 )
9. L.L.M ( Harvard ,1987 )
11. M.A ( Anthropology , Columbia 1989 )
12. Ph.D ( Cambridge ,1993 )
Let's consider these. First degree 1976. He skipped the master's degree and instead went straight into a doctoral course, in just four years getting a PhD from Beliard College (not one I'd previously heard of) in Oxford. Five years later, another doctorate from Oxford. AND in the same year a doctorate from St Andrews and/or the Open University (let's not quibble about details). Two years later he got a master's degree; two years later another master's degree; four years later he got another doctorate.
I don't recall ever having heard of anyone with four doctorates. Two, yes; three, very occasionally perhaps; but four? (And maybe he got five if he really did get doctorates from St Andrews and the Open U at the same time.)
Clearly this man is a genius.
Or possibly, just possibly, this hagiography is a pile of horseshit, and not worth citing for this or anything else. 
I wonder. Any informed comments? -- Hoary (talk) 15:24, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: List of degrees

message: Hoary has pointed out that this page has been previously deleted as a likely fabrication - see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad, which also contains further commentary on its accuracy. I thought the fact that he has been in this list since the earliest edit  must be some sort of proof of the claims, but now I see that that article's early history has actually been lost in a page move, so I think I smell a rat. 
The main source for the article  is hosted on http://www.timespiders.0lx.net/, which turns out to be a free web hosting service. In other words, something significantly less than a reliable source. Ignore that, and what can we actually verify?
Pub Med brings up 9 hits for a psychiatrist named AJ Prasad (or 41 for A Prasad, but the wide range of subject areas suggests these are many different people). This is significantly fewer than the 260 claimed in the biography, and far fewer than we'd expect from a notable scientist, let alone a world-leader.
There seem to be two syndromes which have been called Prasad's syndrome - one in psychiatry and one affecting the intestines. However, neither seems to have caught on as a name, as they generate three pubmed hits between them. .
The book seems to be real. 
There is a real AJ Prasad who is a fellow of the AAAS , but according to French Wikipedia that's an engineer called Ashoka Jahnnavi Prasad Jr (I think - my French is a bit ropey). If, as Vr said above, the member of the AAAS was elected in 1972, he obviously cannot be the same person as the subject of this article, as he would have been elected aged 17 date of birth  1955 and before he completed his first degree. To put it mildly, this is unlikely.
In short, there is a real, published psychiatrist called Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad, but I can find no convincing evidence that he is notable enough for Wikipedia. This is before we even get into the question of whether he is the same person as the psychiatrist called Ashoka Prasad, who has been struck off medical registers in several countries for scientific fraud.   Unless anybody would like to tread into that BLP minefield to establish some notability, I suggest the page should be deleted, and probably salted given that it has been deleted before. Iain99Balderdash and piffle 23:27, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  A very strange saga indeed 

message: Anyone who wants to (re-) create an article on Prasad should apply at Wikipedia:Deletion review. -- Hoary (talk) 10:43, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Want to re-create an article on him?