Days after Sabyasachi Das, an assistant professor at Ashoka University, resigned following a controversy over his research paper, Pulapre Balakrishnan, a professor from the varsity's Economics department, has followed suit. The faculty members have demanded that Das be reinstated.
Swaraj India Founder and political activist Yogendra Yadav lauded the step taken by the faculty members, saying, "Good to see some academics standing up in this climate of fear. Salute Prof Pulapre Balakrishnan," as mentioned in a report by PTI.
The faculty members of the Economic Department have written an open letter, warning the Governing Body that its "interference" in the process to "investigate the merits" of Das' study was likely to "precipitate an exodus of faculty". The English and Creative Writing departments, in a joint statement, also demanded that Das be reinstated.
"The offer of resignation by our colleague Prof Sabyasachi Das and its hasty acceptance by the university has deeply ruptured the faith that we in the faculty of the department of Economics, our colleagues, our students, and well-wishers of Ashoka University everywhere, had reposed in the university's leadership," the open letter said.
The faculty also stated that they would not be able to carry out their teaching obligations "unless questions regarding basic academic freedoms are resolved before the Monsoon 2023 semester". "We urge the governing body to address this immediately, but no later than August 23, 2023. Failure to do so will systematically wreck the largest academic department at Ashoka and the very viability of the Ashoka vision," the letter adds.
The professor's research paper
After Das' research came under criticism, the university distanced itself and stated that social media activity or public activism by Ashoka faculty, students or staff in their "individual capacity" does not reflect its stand. In the paper, Democratic Backsliding in the World's Largest Democracy, Das argued that the BJP won a disproportionate share of closely contested parliamentary seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, especially in states where it was the ruling party.
His paper cites that the reasons for this could be that either the BJP committed electoral fraud or it was able to accurately predict closely contested seats and mobilise party workers to campaign more intensively. The research was published on the Social Science Research Network on July 25.
Later, Das resigned and the university accepted his resignation. The open letter by professors said, "Das did not violate any accepted norm of academic practice", mentioning that academic research is professionally evaluated through a process of peer review.
"The Governing Body's interference in this process to investigate the merits of Das' 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 faculty members by the Governing Body," the open letter says further.
The Governing Body comprises Ashoka University Chancellor Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Vice-Chancellor Somak Raychaudhury, Madhu Chandak, Puneet Dalmia, Ashish Dhawan, Pramath Raj Sinha, Siddharth Yog, Deep Kalra and Ziaa Lalka. There was no reaction available from the university on the faculty members' demand or Prof Balakrishnan's resignation, as per PTI.
