NEW DELHI: The scientific board of the Trivedi Centre for Political Data (TCPD) at the Ashoka University has announced in an open letter that it was dissolving itself, alleging that the varsity did not inform or consult the members regarding “substantial changes” about how the centre would be run.
The board’s letter said that Professor Gilles Verniers, the centre’s founder and director, was “forced to leave”.
Expressing disappointment over Ashoka University’s decisions, it said, “The TCPD’s agenda, under the leadership of founding director professor Gilles Verniers, is what attracted each of us to serve on its scientific board, and contribute to its intellectual mission.”
The board, which includes political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, former election commissioner SY Quraishi and senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Milan Vaishnav, said it is “surprised and disappointed” by the decisions.
“Given this track record of excellence, we were surprised and disappointed that we, as the Scientific Board, were not consulted before changes were made governing how the Centre is run and situated within its home institution, in breach of academic norms,” it said.
“The TCPD has also played an important role for students from Ashoka and beyond. In seven years, TCPD researchers have mentored 125 interns, mostly from Ashoka,” it read.The latest crisis in Ashoka University comes after an assistant professor Economics resigned in August, weeks after he published a research paper exploring the possibility of electoral manipulation in favour of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.