New Delhi, Aug 16 In the wake of the resignation of professor Sabyasachi Das and members of faculty writing to him for formation of committee for academic freedom, Ashoka University's Vice Chancellor Somak Raychaudhary assured to all the members that measures are now being taken to form the committee and they have his full support to create it.
In an internal mail on Augist 15, Raychaudhary said, "Thank you for submitting the petition to me and the Dean of Faculty."
Mentioning the resignation of Das, the VC said: "He submitted his resignation to the Dean of Faculty several days ago. Since then, extensive efforts were made to dissuade him before his resignation was accepted."
Mentioning about his meeting of the Academic Council on Augist 14, Raychaudhary said: "As I stated in the meeting of the Academic Council yesterday, there is no need to appeal to us for the formation of the Committee for Academic freedom.
"As I understand, even though it was proposed by the Dean of Faculty several times over the last two years, the Committee could not be formed, because no faculty member volunteered," he said.
"I am happy that measures are now being taken to form this committee, and you have my full support to create it at the earliest, following the guidelines laid out in the Faculty handbook," Raychaudhary added.
His remarks came after second professor in the economics department of Ashoka University Pulapre Balakrishnan also resigned in protest over the acceptance of resignation of assistant professor Das.
Even the members of the faculty at the varsity wrote a letter on August 13 on academic freedom asserting that to stifle critique is to poison the life-blood of pedagogy.
The members of faculty also highlighted that the absence of the adopted document for academic freedom and committee on the same are being felt acutely at this moment and demanded that decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold until the committee is in place.
The letter from the members of faculty came after Balkrishnan and Das resigned from the university.
Das's paper suggesting voter manipulation in 2019 elections sparked a controversy.
Highlighting the controversy surround the research of Das, the letter said: "Recent events around a paper published by Professor Das are a reminder that the crisis is an ongoing and deep one, with implications for every academic working at Ashoka University and, for that matter, in India."
The member of faculty noted that it is not a crisis that will go away by wishing that papers like Professor Das's will not be written in the future, because that is not a realistic possibility in a working institution.
"It will not be solved by apologies and resignations. It has to be addressed with academic freedom constituting the core of our position with regard to the crisis," it read
The member faculty also highlighted that Ashoka University had drafted and adopted a document for academic freedom in 2021.
"It has been bewildering to witness events unfold in the last two weeks that are directly related to academic freedom in a way that makes no reference to this document and behaves, to all purposes, as if it does not exist. We ask that all responses to the matter of what may or may not be admissible in research and academic practice at Ashoka University proceed from now on according to the guidelines set out in this document, which, rather than any tweet or individual opinion, expresses the university's position on this all-important subject," it read.
The letter also said that "we ask, too, that the Committee for Academic Freedom, which the document had proposed be set up soon, be created immediately" as it will bring much needed transparency and procedural fairness whenever such issues arise.
"The absence of both are being felt acutely at this moment. It would also prevent, on such occasions, public pronouncements that claim to speak on behalf of Ashoka University of whose provenance almost no one at the university is aware," the member faculty said.
"All such pronouncements and decisions about actions to be taken in such circumstances should emanate, after deliberation, from the Committee for Academic Freedom. Decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold until the committee is in place," it added.
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