The Department of Economics at the Ashoka University has written an open letter to the governing body of the institute demanding an “unconditional” reinstatement of professor Sabyasachi Das to his position. The department has “threatened” to stop its operations if the demands are not met before August 23, 2023.
The university’s Economics Department has also asked the governing body to affirm, that it will have no role to play in evaluating faculty research through any committee or other structure.
This letter comes in the context of Sabyasachi Das’s resignation last week after the controversy over his research paper ‘Democratic Backsliding in the World’s Largest Democracy’, which studied the 2019 general election in India and highlighted irregular patterns indicating electoral manipulation.
After his resignation, the university issued a statement disassociating itself from the views expressed by the professor. “Dr Das’s paper on Indian elections was the subject of widespread controversy after being shared recently on social media, where it was perceived by many to reflect the views of the university… The university does not direct or moderate the research conducted by its faculty and students. This academic freedom also applied to Dr Das,” the statement available on the university’s website read.
However, the Department of Economics has alleged that the governing body has interfered in the ‘academic freedom’ at the university by attempting to investigate the merit of professor Das’s study. “Professor Das did not violate any accepted norm of academic practice. Academic research is professionally evaluated through a process of peer review. The governing body’s interference in this process to investigate the merits of his recent study constitutes institutional harassment, curtails academic freedom, and forces scholars to operate in an environment of fear. We condemn this in the strongest terms and refuse as a collective to cooperate in any future attempt to evaluate the research of individual economics faculty members by the Governing Body,” the open letter said.
The department also added that this action by the governing body is likely to precipitate an exodus of faculty, and prevent from attracting new faculty. Das was an assistant professor of Economics at Ashoka University.
Meanwhile, another professor from the Department of Economics, Pulapre Balakrishnan, has put down his papers in protest to the acceptance of Das’s resignation by the varsity. However, an official statement is yet to be released on this by the university.