Earlier this month, Ashoka University had distanced itself from a controversial ‘research paper’, hitherto unpublished and yet to be critically reviewed, by Economics professor Sabyasachi Das. Das’ paper used some statistical data crunching and made tall claims alleging that the BJP is winning elections by doing ‘voter manipulation’.
Das’ claims were based on his alleged “finding” that the BJP won at least 11 seats in the 2019 elections where it had a 50-50 chance of winning. The BJP had won 303 seats in the 2019 general elections, ensuring a landslide, thumping majority far ahead of the majority tally of 274. The NDA alliance in total had won over 353 seats.
“To the best of our knowledge, the paper in question has not yet completed a critical review process and has not been published in an academic journal… Social media activity or public activism by Ashoka faculty, students or staff in their individual capacity does not reflect the stand of the University”, the statement by the University read on August 1.
Since then, Das has reportedly resigned from his position. However, the Leftist ecosystem on social media, media, and within the University itself, has been trying to make a martyr out of Das, trying their best to defend his so-called ‘research paper’ where glaring flaws have been pointed out by several economists.
Ashoka Uni faculty members condemn University for accepting Das’ resignation, say evaluating his paper is ‘institutional harassment’
In an open letter, the faculty members of the Department of Economics at Ashoka University have condemned the University’s decision to accept Sabyasachi Das’ resignation in a ‘hasty’ manner. They have written that the University’s stance of evaluating Das’ research paper on its merits constitutes ‘institutional harassment’ and the University should not interfere in the academic process.
The faculty members want Ashoka University to:
- Unconditionally offer Sabyasachi Das his position back.
- Affirm and assure that the governing body will play no role in evaluating the research paper, through any committee or any other structure.
Faculty members threaten boycott, say won’t take classes if University doesn’t bow down to their demands
The faculty members have told the Univerity administration that unless Sabyasachi Das is given his position back, and the University refrains from any kind of scrutiny of his research paper, they won’t perform their academic duties in the Monsoon session. They have also given the deadline of August 23 to the University.
The open bullying, and the bizarre demand that a so-called ‘research paper’ should not be reviewed or scrutinized, have generated a debate on social media, drawing attention to the sense of entitlement and aversion to criticism shown by the faculty members, and the Leftists ecosystem in general.
“Ashoka University is a private institution. Parents pay huge fees. Faculty has to be accountable, answerable, and responsible. It is not their divine right to live off others’ money and do whatever they wish. Even municipality offices do not allow that anymore. PS: Similar threat of dire consequences was heard when Raghuram Rajan was not given an extension. Our Left-Liberal ‘intellectuals’ lack imagination”, posted Kanchan Gupta, Senior Adviser, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.
Ashoka University is a private institution. Parents pay huge fees. Faculty has to be accountable, answerable, responsible. It is not their divine right to live off others money and do whatever they wish. Even municipality offices do not allow that anymore.
— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) August 17, 2023
PS: Similar threat of… pic.twitter.com/0jVfFsXHK2
“According to these professors, research malpractice doesn’t matter just as long as the researcher’s ideology is aligned with theirs” posted Indian American academic Anurag Mairal.
According to these professors, research malpractice doesn’t matter just as long as the researcher’s ideology is aligned with theirs.
— Anurag Mairal (@mairal) August 17, 2023
@AshokaUniv’s reputation as a quality research institution will go up if such professors leave, IMHO. https://t.co/sFAcgM8Jhk
Apparently, ‘standing with Sabyasachi Das’ has become a political movement in the university. Other departments have also joined in. Another such ‘open letter’ by the Department of Political Science also surfaced later. The faculty members made similar demands and threatened that they will not carry out their academic obligations unless the University accepts their demands, unconditionally reinstating Das, and not carrying out any scrutiny or review of his ‘research paper’.
Not just faculty, the Left ecosystem jumps in with bizarre claims and imaginary entitlements to defend Das’ paper
Glaring flaws, loopholes, and dataset-related mistakes have been pointed out in Das’ paper by numerous economists and data experts. However, for the Left ecosystem, facts do not matter. What matters is their conviction that a certain ideology should be above scrutiny and criticism and should be accepted by all without any question.
‘Columnist’ Sadanand Dhume tried to argue that even though a research paper is error-filled, getting something wrong is not a crime. And the ‘online lynch mob’ should not target Das. Nobody has targeted Das or made any ad hominem attacks on his person. Dhume was trying to insinuate that questioning Das’ paper, and pointing out mistakes is the same as threatening him, and Ashoka Univeristy, by seeking to review Das’ paper was succumbing to ‘online lynch mobs’.
Basically, just because Das’ paper is politically aligned a certain way, it should be above scrutiny and anybody wanting to scrutinize is bad, as per Dhume.
The Ashoka University faculty revolt illustrates a fundamental division between how India’s Hindu Right and westernized liberals view freedom of inquiry. The Hindu Right believes that investigating an academic for a paper they deem shoddy and heretical is legitimate. Liberals see… https://t.co/JDypAVB7S6
— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) August 17, 2023
Left intellectuals like Salil Tripathi and Icchadhari protestor-cum-psephologist-turned-academician Yogendra Yadav reluctantly seemed to admit that there might be flaws in Das’ research paper, but the University wanting to review the paper was plain wrong.
This is even more true of the strongest proponents of the paper as evidenced by the fact that almost none of them is able to come up with a response to the critique of the paper. And that is actually the really worrying issue – because these people are academics and journalists… https://t.co/8Zjc8W9Sga pic.twitter.com/axj1Tus9ge
— Sai (@Saiarav) August 17, 2023
Basically, as @Saiarav pointed out, even the most vocal supporters of Das and his paper are unable to defend the paper on the basis of facts and data. All the criticism of Das’ paper, where flaws and errors were pointed out, were about mistakes made in the paper, none of them were ad hominem attacks on Das or his profession. But for the Left, what matters is blind subversion, no questions asked.
leftist portals like The Wire etc have been trying to make a martyr out of Das too, completely ignoring the fact that his paper has glaring flaws and it makes dubious, misleading assumptions about election data.
How the shoddy paper by Das used flawed datasets and statistical jugglery to draw misleading, bizarre conclusions
An alleged ‘research paper’, unpublished so far in any academic journal and yet to be peer-reviewed, as clarified by Ashoka University, gained attention on social media recently. By claiming they have ‘scientific evidence’, the paper boasts that they have cracked how the BJP wins elections in India. It claimed that ‘manipulation’ is achieved by targeted discrimination against India’s largest minority group, Muslims.
The paper suggests that the BJP wins more owing to ‘electoral manipulation’, that is, somehow deleting the names of voters from lists. That too, deleting the names of Muslim voters. Doing some wild math, Das claims in the paper that the BJP has won at least 11 seats in the 2019 elections by doing “voter manipulation”.
However, the basic premise of the claims was flawed. Out of the 41 seats the BJP won by a low margin, nearly half of them were from non-NDA ruled states, so Das’ claims of BJP using state machinery to rig elections find no basis. The claims of voter list manipulation were also flawed because the growth rate of the electorate in BJP-won seats was at par with the national average of the growth rate of the electorate. There were also other mistakes, like citing Union Territories as ‘non-BJP ruled’ areas and listing the Nabrangpur constituency as ‘close contest’ for the BJP, while in reality, the BJP was a distant third.
A detailed explanation of how the paper had many flaws and how the University distanced itself after many experts pointed out the flaws, can be read here.
X user @Saiarav who was one of the first to list glaring mistakes in Das’ paper, has since then published a detailed rebuttal of the paper. The rebuttal can be read here.
Economist Mudit Kapoor, from the Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, also pointed out the flaws in Das’ paper in a detailed statistical analysis and shared the findings in a blogpost.
