JNU professor quits Economic Data panel in protest against violence
In protest against the violence witnessed on campus, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor CP Chandrasekhar quit Pronab Sen panel on economic data, on Tuesday (January 7).
Chandrasekhar submitted his resignation to the government-appointed committee’s head Pronab Sen. He also expressed his inability to attend the first meeting of the committee that was to be held on Tuesday.
Pronab Sen, a former chief statistician of India and head of the committee, is yet to take a call on the resignation, sources said.
The Standing Committee on Economic Statistics was set up by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation last month to review framework relating to data sources, indicators, concepts or definitions and other issues after several economists raised questions over the veracity of official data.
Chandrasekhar, who lives in the JNU campus, and other professors are also said to be upset over the violence and the inaction on the part of the JNU administration and the Delhi police whom they accuse of failing to protect the students and teachers of the university.
Chandrasekhar is considered to be among the Left-leaning faculty of JNU and the ongoing tensions at the campus have led to a clear confrontation between JNU’s Left-dominated students’ union and supporting professors on the one side and the JNU administration and the anti-Left faculty members on the other side.
The ABVP and the Left-affiliated JNUSU are blaming each other for the violence while the JNU administration has complained to Delhi police about JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh alleging vandalisation of the university’s servers. She has also been accused of attacking JNU campus guards and Delhi police have filed two FIRs against her.
It is to be noted that masked goons entered the JNU, on Sunday last, and assaulted students and teachers with sticks, rods and other weapons. Even though a complaint has been registered against unknown persons no arrests have been made so far.
