Ashoka University Takes Stand Against Faculty-Authored Research Paper on Manipulation During 2019 Elections

The Ashoka University in a circular stated that it is disappointed over the research paper published by one of the faculty members of the University, Sabyasachi Das (Assistant Professor, Economics). The research paper by the professor claims to provide evidence that the irregularity in elections was due to ‘electoral manipulation’ rather than ‘precise control’ by the winning party.

The Varsity in a twitter post writes, "Ashoka University is dismayed by the speculation and debate around a recent paper by one of its faculty members (Sabyasachi Das, Assistant Professor of Economics) and the university's position on its contents. As a matter of record, Ashoka University is focused on excellence in teaching and research across multiple disciplines, with a vision to build India's finest university, create social impact and contribute to nation-building. The University encourages its 160-plus faculty to carry out research but does not direct or approve specific research projects by individual faculty members. Ashoka values research that is critically peer-reviewed and published in reputed journals. 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."

On Tuesday, Congress MP from Kerala Shashi Tharoor shared a post on the social media platform X formerly Twitter Inc. He writes, "This thread offers a hugely troubling analysis for all lovers of Indian democracy. If the Election Commission and/or the Government of India have answers available to refute these arguments, they should provide them in detail. The evidence presented does not lend itself to political attacks on a serious scholar. E.g. the discrepancy in vote tallies needs to be explained, since it can't be wished away."

The thread shared by M.R. Sharan on twitter questions, "The BJP won the 2019 parliamentary elections in India, but was it ALL fair and square? This astonishing new working paper by @sabya_economist provides scientific evidence that suggests vote(r) manipulation by BJP. And no, this is NOT about EVMs. He said that the BJP wins a disproportionate number of “close” elections in 2019. Close polls are basically a toss-up: if parties put in equal effort, there is no reason one party wins more such polls than others. Somehow BJP wins more."

He further writes, "Remarkably, there is no evidence of this occurring for the Congress in 2019. Or, for that matter, the BJP or Congress in previous general elections or concurrently held assembly elections."

Points to ponder

1. Precise control: BJP knows what elections are going to be close and works harder there. This is plausible and has been shown to be at work in other contexts.

2. Electoral Manipulation: Party manipulates voter rolls, votes polled.

3. Voter rolls are manipulated: Das shows that the growth rate in voters between 2014-19 is smaller in constituencies where BJP narrowly wins. So - names are being deleted. Q: Whose? Analysis of names of voters in the voter rolls suggests that these are Muslim votes.

4. Turnout Manipulation: You can delete voters or just delete/change their votes! Some history:

After the 2019 polls, the Election Commission of India put out two separate lists of vote counts:

i) constituency wise “final” EVM count of votes polled across candidates

(ii) constituency-wise number of votes counted in EVMs. The problem? These lists did not match each other. When the media pointed this out, the first list was deleted!

He therefore shared an article by the news portal quint, "EVM Vote Count Mismatch In 370+ Seats and EC Refuses to Explain" The article was published in 2019.