Ashoka University students demand withdrawal of statement on professor's 'controversial' paper

NEW DELHI: Ashoka University students have demanded withdrawal of the university’s statement expressing dismay over the research paper published by economics assistant professor Sabyasachi Das which hinted at voter manipulation in 2019 elections in India. The university’s student group Leher, in a statement, condemned the “hate and attack” on professor Das and demanded protection for him and faculty’s right to freedom of research from the university.

The students’ group showed concern over the reaction of the university to the controversy developed around the paper titled “Democratic Backsliding in the World’s Largest Democracy” in which the professor has talked about irregular patterns in elections and manipulation by the winning party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The university had distanced itself from the paper and said that it was not reviewed critically and that personal views of faculty members don’t reflect university’s stand.

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They said that while the paper and the department have become the target for allegations of “anti-nationalism” and “political hit jobs”, the ruling government members have criticized the university for allowing “half-baked research”.

“It has become a trend for any writing for public or academic consumption that critiques the ruling government but what is perhaps more concerning is Ashoka University’s reaction to this,” Leher said in the statement.

The students found the university’s statement highly undesirable and a compromise on its commitment to protect its researchers during the pre-publishing stages. “Ashoka cannot claim to be a liberal space when its immediate reaction to any controversy over its faculty’s research is to be “dismayed” by it,” they stated.

The students’ group went on to say that the works of professor Das have been published in peer-reviewed journals and no inaccuracies have been suggested in the paper so far. The students claimed that the paper is being discussed and appreciated by known scholars and has been presented at the NBER Summer Institute. “While critique and debate is an essential part of academia, stifling research is not. Time and again the university has failed to stand up for its faculty,” Leher further said.