New Delhi: Well-known economist C.P. Chandrasekhar has withdrawn from participating in a government-appointed committee that was set up to review and suggest improvements to India’s economic data.

Chandrasekhar, a former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, has cited both recent controversies at the academic institution and his lack of faith in the government panel’s mission to restore credibility to the country’s statistical system.

“I regret to inform you that, because of the situation in JNU where I stay, I will be unable to attend tomorrow’s meeting. Further, I feel that, under current conditions, this Committee is unlikely to be able to restore the credibility of the statistical system, which has been undermined in the recent past,” Chandrasekhar wrote in an e-mail sent to all committee members on Monday night.

Last month, India’s statistics ministry set up a ‘Standing Committee on Economic Statistics’, to “review the extant framework relating to data sources, indicators, concepts or definitions and other issues” of the country’s economic data-sets. The panel, which is led by former chief statistician Pronab Sen, was created after several data controversies rocked the Narendra Modi government in 2019.

In January 2019, the only two non-government members of the National Statistical Commission quit in protest, allegedly over the Centre’s decision to bury a key jobs report and its refusal to take the advice provided by the commission.

The standing committee was effectively set up to deal with this fallout and will have its first meeting on Tuesday (January 7).

Chandrasekhar, who was invited to be a part of the panel along with several other critics of the government, will not be attending though.

“It is unfortunate that political pressures have reduced their [colleagues within the statistical system] autonomy now, and efforts to consolidate a well-designed system are being subverted. In these circumstances, I will not be able to serve on this Committee,” the economist added in his email to the panel’s members.

Over the past two days, tensions over a fee hike in JNU quickly escalated when ‘masked goons’ entered the university’s campus on Sunday evening and assaulted a number of students and faculty members with a variety of weapons.

Chandrasekhar, who was present on campus during the violence, told media organisations that he found the incident both “disturbing” and “unprecedented”.