Big news: A day after violence broke out in the JNU on Sunday, one of its professors, C P Chandrasekhar, resigned from a government-appointed committee, which was set to hold its first meeting to review India’s economic data.
business-standard.com/article/curren…
business-standard.com/article/curren…
"The JNU’s incident on Sunday has further undermined the faith in the system. It shows that we are now living in a different world and it’s hard to work with a government on whom you have lost faith,” Prof. @cpc01 told me over phone a while back.
In Dec., the govt had set up a Standing Committee on Economic Statistics, led by former chief statistician Pronab Sen, to review India's economic data-sets. The committee was set to hold its first meeting on Tuesday at 10.30 am. Prof. Chandrasekhar resigned on Monday at 9.07 pm.
Here is the full text of his resignation letter he sent to all members of the committee, including its chairman, and the government. 
Prof. Chandrasekhar was present in the JNU campus on Sunday when masked goons entered the campus and assaulted students and teachers with hammers, rods and sticks. He found the incident disturbing and unprecedented.
The expert committee, led by Pronab Sen, was set up over a month after 200 economists had criticised the government for "political interference" in the statistical system.
business-standard.com/article/econom…
business-standard.com/article/econom…
The Indian government had in November 2019 junked an official survey which showed consumer spending falling for the first time in over four decades. The data indicated that poverty was on the rise in 2017-18 compared to the past. Our news break:
business-standard.com/article/econom…
business-standard.com/article/econom…
The govt had earlier withheld another official survey which showed the unemployment rate touching a 45-year-high of 6.1% in 2017-18 (reported by us). First, the government denied it but then officially released it after the general elections of 2019.
business-standard.com/article/econom…
business-standard.com/article/econom…
But more importantly, the trigger for Prof. Chandrasekhar's withdrawn from a newly-appointed committee was the JNU violence. "I feel that under current conditions, the committee is unlikely to be able to restore the credibility of the statistical system."
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