Have lost faith in the government after violence at university, he says

C.P. Chandrasekhar of the JNU’s Centre for Economic Studies and Planning on Tuesday said that he had resigned from a government panel set up to review India’s economic statistical data as he did not “trust the government to come up with a robust and transparent plan to restore the credibility of the statistical system which has been undermined in the recent past”.

Also Read The mask of anarchy: On JNU violence

The Statistics Ministry had constituted a Standing Committee on Statistics (SCES) chaired by former Chief Statistician Pronab Sen to improve the quality of data amid criticism of the government over political interference.

Prof. Chandrasekhar, who lives on the JNU campus, said that after Sunday’s violence, he had lost faith in the government. “My house was not attacked but I could see the mobs attacking people on campus. If this can happen in JNU, it can happen anywhere else. I have been at JNU as a student as well and never has such a situation arisen. A masked mob ran riot with the police standing as spectators,” the professor said.

“I used to be part of several statistical committees set up by the government, but now, with the government bringing in the National Population Register (NPR), which is a statistical issue that will then be linked to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), I cannot be part of such an ‘umbrella committee,’” the economist said.

“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,” Prof. Chandrasekhar wrote in an email to the panel members.